


Hold my hand and kiss my cheek darling (the world is watching us)

by Abbypd



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Angst, But Not Much, Fake Relationship, Fluff, Forced Relationship, Lashton - Freeform, M/M, Some parts are so cheesy, famous!Ashton - Freeform, lots and lots and lots of fluff, side malum, too much fluff I think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 08:32:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5532680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abbypd/pseuds/Abbypd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“But why do I need a fake boyfriend to come out?” Ashton asked, glaring at his manager – a woman in her forties who usually knew exactly what she was talking about. This time, the young singer wasn’t too sure.<br/>“Because why else would you have waited for two whole years to come out? With a boyfriend you can just tell them you didn’t know you were into guys until you met him. It will be romantic and everybody will love it.”</p><p>Or Luke and Ashton are both idiots who are too scared to admit that their kisses aren't just for the cameras.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hold my hand and kiss my cheek darling (the world is watching us)

**Author's Note:**

> So... Yeah...  
> The title sucks but I wasn't motivated enough to come up with anything else.
> 
> Also credits to Kelyn for coming up with pretty much half of the plot.  
> (His AO3 is @sonofneverland - go check him out!)

“But why do I need a fake boyfriend to come out?” Ashton asked, glaring at his manager – a woman in her forties who usually knew exactly what she was talking about. This time, the young singer wasn’t too sure.

“Because why else would you have waited for two whole years to come out? With a boyfriend you can just tell them you didn’t know you were into guys until you met him. It will be romantic and everybody will love it.”

“Uh, maybe I didn’t want to come out because I was scared? Like many, _many_ other celebrities out there.” Ashton knew his voice had turned sassy but he didn’t care. He just didn’t want to walk around holding a stranger’s hand and pretending to be madly in love with him. But that was _exactly_ what Angela had in mind.

“But this is 2016, Ash; gays are popular now. There’s no need to be scared anymore, the media loves them. They will love you. Tell them you wrote one or two songs about him and it will be the _perfect_ publicity stunt. But if you admit you were scared, your young fans will think coming out is something they still have to be scared of and that isn’t good. Teach them to be proud of who they are.”

And Ashton had to admit she did have a point there.

“But you want me to teach them to be proud to be gay while having a fake relationship to prove this to them?”

“Yes. Sorry Ash, but this is what is best for you and your image, at least in my opinion. So you’ll come out this way or you won’t.”

The boy crossed his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes. He knew he didn’t have a choice though.

“Fine! But I get to pick him myself.”

“Of course. I’ll make sure to gather some young guys who can use a bit of fame and who will keep their mouth shut even when they don’t get to be your fake lover. We will talk about the details later.”

She walked out of the building with a satisfied smile on her face; she had wanted Ashton to come out since the day she had found out he was into both boys and girls and now it was finally going to happen.

 

Ashton sighed. He really hoped he had made the right decision.

 

\---

 

The dirty blonde rolled his eyes when he walked into the ‘audition’ room only two days later. There was some room for the boys to stand and introduce themselves and then there was a table with three chairs for the ‘judges’. Though Ashton did make the final decision, Angela still had a say in this. Ashton had decided to bring his best friend and favourite song writer, Calum Hood as well. He often knew what was best for the singer, better than the twenty-one year old knew himself.

 

He sat down on the middle chair, Calum on his left and Angela on his right. There was a list with all the names and room to write comments about the participants in front of them, along with three pens. Ashton sighed.

A young lady brought them their drinks and then the first boy was brought into the room. His skin was quite tan, his hair black and it almost reached his shoulders. Ashton figured the boy was older than him, but not by much. He was shorter than him though.

The boy stood in front of Ashton and placed his hands behind his back, standing straight and looking rather nervous. The singer felt bad for him, so he shot him what he hoped was a comforting smile.

 

“So, who are you?” Angela asked the boy before Ashton had the chance to say anything.

“My name is Andrew. I am twenty-three years old and I am an actor. In my spare time I like to play video games and work out.”

“That’s an odd combination.” Calum whispered into his friend’s ear, who tried not to chuckle in favour of the boy in front of him.

Angela, who had told Ashton to ask all participants at least one question, glared at him, telling him without words now was the time.

“So, Andrew… Where would you take me on the first date?” the singer asked. Though he had been against all of this, he was starting to have some fun with it. He knew that would be over once he’d have to pick however.

The boy didn’t think long about it at all and Ashton figured he had been prepared for questions like this one. Maybe he had to come up with more original ones.

“I would take you to a beach or a nice park to get to know you, somewhere where no one would disturb us. And then I’d probably take you home and cook a nice meal for you, since restaurants aren’t ideal.”

Ashton nodded. It didn’t sound bad, yet he wasn’t interested in the boy at all.

“Okay thank you. I think that is enough for now.”

Andrew nodded politely and walked out of the room, through another door than the one he had entered through.

 

Then the next boy walked in. He was a little bit taller than the previous one, probably just as tall as Ashton was. His hair was dyed a bright shade red and his skin was pale and Ashton spotted a piercing right through his right eyebrow. He wasn’t his type _at all._

Calum picked up a pen and wrote ‘ _HOT!’_ in the comment section and Ashton raised an amused eyebrow at him. The raven haired boy just shrugged.

“So, who are you?” Angela asked once again, and Ashton was sure he was going to hear that phrase at least another forty times today.

“The name’s Michael Clifford. I am a musician who hasn’t quite made it yet. I will though, with or without someone’s help.”

‘ _Bold.’_ Calum added, obviously thinking it was a good thing. Ashton wasn’t so sure yet.

“If someone would state you were only dating me for fame, what would you tell them?”

“To mind their own fucking business.” The boy shrugged and Calum snickered loudly while Angela obviously wasn’t pleased with the answer. Ashton couldn’t stop a grin from decorating his face though.

“Okay, thank you.”

 

“If you don’t want him, can I have him?” Calum asked as soon as the door fell shut behind the red haired boy.

“Sure.” Ashton told him, and the boy beamed at him.

Calum picked up the pen again and wrote ‘ _for Calum’_ underneath the other two words, a satisfied grin on his face. Ashton rolled his eyes at him. He wondered how many other participants he would call dibs on.

 

\---

 

Ashton had lost count about an hour ago but he was sure he had seen _at least_ sixty boys walking in and out of the small room by now.

He was in desperate need of a break but there were only five participants left so Angela wouldn’t let him go.

The young singer had given up on hope thirty boys ago, but that hadn’t convinced his manager to let him stop.

Calum had lost his enthusiasm as well for he had been texting the second participant for half an hour now, after he had asked an assistant for the boy’s number.

 

Ashton tried to look as interested as possible when the door opened once again, sitting up straight after he had been doodling on the paper in front of him for a bit.

The first thing he saw were two skinny and extremely long legs, clad in tight, black jeans with multiple holes in them.

He looked up and noticed the boy was dressed in all black, his hands hidden in the pockets of his leather jacket. He had quite some bracelets around his wrist and a black ring through his lip, which he was chewing on nervously. His blonde hair was styled into a rather impressive quiff and his eyes were the piercing kind of blue.

Suddenly the singer didn’t have to pretend to be interested anymore; the boy had his undivided attention.

“Hi, I’m Luke.” He said. His voice was a lot lower than Ashton had expected it to be.

“I am nineteen years old and I play the guitar. I have a YouTube channel where I post covers and vlogs and such, which is going rather well.”

A light blush was creeping up his face and Ashton thought it was the most adorable thing he had seen all day. He was smiling without even noticing it and Calum kicked against his shin to help him remember he was supposed to ask the boy a question now.

“Right.” Ashton mumbled.

“Uh, what is your favourite animal?”

He had run out of ideas an hour ago and this question was probably the most boring one since almost everybody said it was either a dog or a cat but he really didn’t know what else to ask.

The boy, Luke, chuckled nervously.

“Uh, it’s a penguin.” He said, chewing on his bottom lip again. Calum and Ashton both raised their eyebrows.

“Why?” Ashton wanted to know, sounding amused and making this the first time he had asked more than just one question.

“I don’t know… Just… They are cute you know, and they can’t fly despite having wings and they’re so awkward. And I like that they stick with their partner all their lives.” Luke shrugged. And Ashton smiled at the boy once again.

“So what is your YouTube channel? For further investigation, I mean…” Ashton wanted to know, blushing the tiniest bit when his best friend shot him a knowing look.

The boy blushed even worse than before.

“It’s uh… It’s Luke-is-a-penguin…” He looked at his feet.

“Okay, thank you. I think that will be enough.”

The boy looked up and Ashton winked at him before the boy turned around and left.

 

“I want him.” Ashton said as soon as the door had closed, not caring that there were still four boys waiting to introduce themselves.

“Okay.” Angela nodded, obviously pleased with his choice.

“You’ll need to give the last boys a chance though.”

Ashton nodded. He knew he could handle four others after the sixty or seventy he had already met.

 

\---

 

“Okay, so first of all I would like to thank you all for being here today.” Was the first thing Ashton said when he walked up onto the stage. The seventy-six – apparently – participants were all seated and looking up to him but it was nothing new to the famous singer.

“And I would like to let you guys know I have made a decision, though it wasn’t easy.” The last part was a lie.

“Can I get a drumroll?” he joked, only to find out they actually had one prepared.

“And my new ‘boyfriend’ is…” he said, pausing just because it was fun to see the anticipation on the boys’ faces.

“Luke Hemmings.”

The drumroll stopped and Ashton could hear people whispering to each other in the audience while everybody was looking around in an attempt to find the lucky guy.

Said guy got up from his seat and awkwardly walked over and climb onto the stage while people politely applauded. Luke stood next to Ashton who quickly hugged him, just to get it over with. The boy was blushing so hard the singer could almost feel the heat of his cheeks against his own even though they didn’t quite touch, but it was okay. It was rather cute actually.

“Congrats I guess.” Ashton softly told him and the boy shot him a polite smile.

He raised the microphone to his lips again.

“So once again, thank you all for being here today and have a nice day.” He chuckled.

Then he walked off, Angela, Luke and Calum trailing behind him.

 

His manager told him and Luke to go home, since it had been a long day – they would discuss everything tomorrow, she said – while Calum walked off to find Michael. Ashton rolled his eyes at his best friend once again.

 

\---

 

When Ashton opened the door to his manager’s office, Luke was already there. He looked up and the singer smiled at him politely.

It didn’t really feel like Luke was a stranger anymore, for Ashton had spent the entire night watching his vlogs and covers and he was pretty sure Luke at least had an impression of who Ashton was and what he was like as well.

He sat down in the empty chair next to Luke, across from Angela, and folded his hands in his lap, something he always unconsciously did whenever he had to talk business.

 

“Okay boys.” The woman said without looking up from the papers on her desk.

“So you both already know that mister Hemmings will be Ashton’s boyfriend for at least four months; two months prior to the album drop and then another two. How long your relationship will last after those four months depends on how well the fans are buying it, how much they like you two together etcetera.” Angela explained and both boys nodded; they already were aware of this.

“You guys need to figure out how to do this together but there needs to be public hand-holding and kissing at least. As well as selfies and ‘unplanned’ pictures of each other doing every day stuff, I trust you guys know how it goes.

Make sure to shove your love in everybody’s faces but not more than a normal, real couple would. So don’t force it too much.”

Ashton glanced at the boy next to him, realizing just now this boy was going to be his first kiss with another guy for he had never been with boys before. The blonde was staring at Angela though, taking in all the information and instructions he was given.

 

“Like I said, you guys need to talk about what you both are comfortable with and such together and you’ll both need to be convincing, not just Ashton.”

“You will need to share hotel rooms and sleep at each other’s places as much as possible. Also, no double bed hotel rooms for the staff might talk about it.”

Ashton was still looking at Luke, who nodded seriously. It looked cute.

 

“And last but not least: you cannot tell anyone about this arrangement, not even your family and closest friends. Calum knows and I trust he will keep his mouth shut but nobody else is to find out, understood?”

Angela was looking pointedly at Ashton now, so he quickly nodded. He wasn’t sure how he was going to lie to his mum about this yet. She knew him so well, she always saw right through him.

He figured it was better to not visit her for at least a month or two.

 

“Okay, Ashton, you have today and tomorrow off and I want you two to get to know each other first. You have a reservation at a nice little restaurant tomorrow at eight; Henry will pick you two up at half past seven.”

Both boys nodded and as Angela got up, the two boys did as well. Luke was handed a pen and Ashton figured he had already read the contract and discussed it with their boss before he had arrived for he signed it without reading a word. He placed the pen down and then looked at Ashton expectantly.

 

“Wanna go to my place? I reckon we’ll spend most of our time there…” He said, feeling a bit weird, a bit twitchy knowing they will have to spend two whole days together to get to know each other well enough to be able to kiss and hold hands for the whole world to see.

Luke nodded and Ashton held the door open for him. The younger boy chuckled and mumbled a quiet ‘thank you’ before leaving the office and the singer smiled at him, already feeling a bit fond of the adorable blonde.

 

Henry dropped them off at Ashton’s place and then the singer told the man to take the rest of the day off for he wasn’t planning on going anywhere, and if he would, he could easily drive himself.

Then he gave Luke a quick tour through his house since it was likely they were going to share it for the next couple of weeks. The younger boy hadn’t really packed his bags and moved in yet but they knew it would happen soon enough anyways. Ashton had already made sure the guest room was ready for him.

 

\---

 

“Do you want to watch a movie or something?” The young singer suggested once they were on either side of the couch, drinking a beer in silence.

Luke bit on his bottom lip, and Ashton wondered what he was thinking about.

“Um, do you mind if we.. uh..”

“Tell me.” The eldest encouraged him gently.

“Can we talk about this first? You know, just to get it over with? Like, what are you comfortable with and such…”

“Yeah, of course!” Ashton easily agreed. He didn’t know where to start yet; he hoped Luke did.

“Okay, so we obviously haven’t been dating for that long because people like you usually can’t keep stuff like this hidden for long…” he stated and Ashton nodded.

“So I think we shouldn’t go out and pretend to be madly in love yet…” and Ashton nodded again. This far, the boy was making perfect sense and he was glad the blonde had thought this through; Ashton hadn’t even considered all of this yet.

“So maybe we could start with holding hands or put our arms around each other when we walk around town, you know, make sure people see us. And when people start speculating, we can start talking about each other on social media and you can maybe tell about me in interviews and I can talk about you in my vlogs?”

“Yeah, definitely.” Ashton agreed easily. It was probably easier said than done.

 

“So I guess we need to get to know each other as much as possible these two days?” Ashton questioned and now it was Luke’s turn to nod.

“Okay, you start.” The singer quickly said, not wanting to talk about himself too much since Luke probably knew more about him then he knew about Luke.

“Okay.” The blonde nodded, chewing on his bottom lip again while seeming deep in thought.

Ashton folded his legs beneath his body and got comfortable, wishing Luke would tell him _everything_ there was to know about him because he seemed interesting enough already from what he had seen on his YouTube channel.

“So, I’m just gonna start at the very beginning.” Luke chuckled, sounding a bit nervous.

“I was born on the sixteenth of July, 1996, in Sydney. My parents are called Liz and Andy and I have two older brothers, Ben, who is twenty-three, and Jack, twenty-two. Ben is married and has a daughter and Jack is engaged. I was a straight-a student in high school who never broke the rules and had only one friend, Michael. He auditioned to be your boyfriend too.” Luke giggled.

“The guy with the bright red hair?” Ashton gasped exaggerating.

“Yeah.” Luke nodded.

“Calum called dibs on him before he had even said his name.” the singer giggled.

“Yeah, he told me.”

“Anyways, Michael and I moved to Los Angeles because we both wanted to be musicians and Australia isn’t really the right place to start a music career, you know?”

Ashton nodded. It had been his reason to leave the country as well; he was pretty sure Luke already knew that, just from his accent.

“We both study music now and it’s great and all but it wasn’t enough. Michael started to play in bars but I was too shy, so I played in my room and uploaded it onto YouTube. Michael still does bars and he has a nice little fan base and I am still gaining viewers everyday so it’s all pretty great. We do songs together sometimes but Michael likes punk-rock and I like singer-songwriter music better.” Luke shrugged, obviously opting to end his story here.

Ashton nodded, taking in all the information.

“Okay.” He said.

“But it’s still not enough. I need to know the little things; like your favourite place and your favourite food and things that annoy you.” Ashton giggled. He needed to know this to make their relation credible but also because he simply wanted to know.

“Sydney, Pizza, people spoiling the end of a movie or children having a tantrum in the middle of a store.” He quickly summed up and they both chuckled at that.

“Oh and I can’t cook for shit and I kinda tend to flood the bathroom after I take a shower.” He looked at Ashton sheepishly, who simply smiled at the boy, wanting to discover more and more of him.

“Your turn.”

 

\---

 

“Do you want to order pizza? I don’t feel like cooking today…” Ashton looked away from the telly so he could look at Luke, who was silently drinking a beer while watching the latest Iron Man movie.

“Yeah, no problem…”

“But don’t you think they will assume we are just friends if we order pizza? I mean, I don’t know if anyone will find out but…” he mumbled, not sounding too sure of himself.

And Ashton sighed because even though he didn’t like to admit it, the boy was right once again.

“Okay. So I guess I’ll have to make you a romantic dinner then…” he winked and Luke nodded, a small smile on his face. For a second the singer wondered if the boy had said it because he really took his job seriously or just because he wanted to make Ashton work for him.

Either way, the singer decided he didn’t really mind.

 

“My speciality is mac and cheese...” Ashton told him, hoping Luke would be okay with it because if he wouldn’t, he’d have to get groceries for the boy, and he really was too lazy to leave the house today.

“I love mac and cheese.” Luke promised with a shy smile.

The singer returned it and the he got up and walked over to the kitchen. He found the younger boy had followed him and he raised a questioning eyebrow at him, guessing he wanted another beer or whatever.

“Can I help?” he asked instead.

“I thought you ‘ _couldn’t cook for shit’_?” Ashton teased, but the boy only shrugged.

“Not if you tell me what to do.”

“It just feels wrong to sit and watch telly while you make us dinner…” he explained.

“Okay. Well, you could start with filling a pot with water and boil it.” Ashton pointed at the cabinet where he kept his pots and pans and Luke did as he was told while the singer gather the stuff he needed for the sauce.

 

“By the way…” Luke started as he took a pot he deemed big enough from the cabinet.

“I was thinking…” He filled it with water and placed it on top of the stove.

“We still need to come up with the story of how we met.” He said while Ashton turned the stove on for him, since he didn’t know how it worked yet.

Ashton looked at the younger boy, both of them deep in thought for a minute. Luke was chewing on his lip ring, his brows furrowed.

How were they ever going to come up with something that was credible, something both their fan bases would believe? Luke’s fan base wasn’t nearly as big as Ashton’s, yet he did have quite some subscribers and followers on twitter who knew quite a lot about his personal life; unlike Ashton’s fans. The singer tried to keep his life as private as possible while the YouTuber shared everything with his viewers.

 

“Did you have something in mind yet?” Ashton asked, hoping the blonde had already spent some time thinking it over, since he obviously hadn’t. He hadn’t even thought about needing a story in the first place.

“No, not really… I mean, we supposedly met at least three, four weeks ago I reckon and I haven’t really been at any big events where I could’ve possibly met you lately…”

“Hmm…” Ashton scratched the back of his neck, staring into nothing as he could almost hear the gears in his brain grind.

“And even if you had, our fans would still figure out we didn’t talk to each other there or whatever. If that is where we supposedly fell in love with each other, we would’ve been seen together.”

“Indeed.” Luke nodded.

Ashton placed a pan next to the water pot and put some butter in it so he could make the sauce for their dish.

“But you’re a YouTuber, why don’t we tell them I found you on the internet? They’ll never be able to prove it isn’t true.” Ashton said, his face lighting up at his own genius idea. Luke chuckled.

“Yeah, but what happened? You saw my videos… and then?”

The water was starting to boil and Ashton told Luke to throw the macaroni into it and set the timer, wanting to teach the boy how to cook even though he barely knew how to make a proper dish himself.

“We could tell them I dm’ed you and, because you are a fan of me, we started talking for a bit and one thing led to another and tadaa!” Ashton tried, holding his arms out wide and forcing a huge grin onto his face, causing Luke to laugh out loud.

“It’s not bad.” He eventually told the older boy, who dropped his arms and pouted.

“Wait, when was the last time you went to Sydney?” Luke asked

“Uhm, January, two months ago…”

“Me too! I remember hoping I’d see you somewhere.” Luke beamed at him until he started to blush, realizing what he had just said. Ashton only giggled.

“So what if we had actually ran into each other there? What if I had seen you in a bar or whatever and had asked for a selfie and you had recognized me from my videos?”

“And I would’ve told you I knew you and we could’ve had a drink or two together.” Ashton added, understanding where Luke was trying to go with this.

“Yes!” Luke exclaimed enthusiastically.

“And the reason no one has seen the two of us together yet is because you were busy with your album!”

“Okay, so that’s it then?” Ashton asked, adding the last ingredient to his sauce.

“I guess it is.” Luke nodded proudly.

“Now all we need to do is make sure we both tell people the _exact_ same thing, like, dates and stuff, and make it credible.”

 

\---

 

Luke had left Ashton’s place at half past one and there had actually been a guy taking pictures of the blonde boy leaving the rather big house. The singer had been pretty sure Angela had had something to do with that.

 

The night had been rather nice; they had eaten dinner together and then they had been jamming for quite a bit and Luke had been coming up with ideas for the next couple of months like he was in fake relationships all the time.

“ _We could do a cover on my channel together, or one of your songs.”_ He had said.

“ _Oh, and we should do the boyfriend tag as well!”_

“ _You have insta right? That way we can just take selfies and we can take pictures of each other, doing everyday stuff.”_

And Ashton had easily agreed with him. He trusted Luke would make this work, so all he had to worry about was look comfortable enough around the younger boy to make it look like they were actually in love.

How hard could it be?

 

Right before Ashton had planned on going to bed, Angela had texted him, telling him he was supposed to go to Luke’s house the next day and that she had already told Henry to pick them up there instead of at Ashton’s place.

Only seconds later the younger boy had texted him and told him ‘ _Don’t look at the mess tomorrow… I’m trying to clean as much as possible but I also need sleep… ’_

He had added a little blushing emoji and Ashton had shaken his head at his phone, a fond smile creeping up his face without his brain telling him to do so.

 

The next morning, his driver dropped him off in front of an average looking apartment complex and he quickly made his way in. He had no idea if anyone had seen him but it was still early, so he figured nobody had.

 

“Hi.” Luke greeted him cheerfully, like he had been awake for hours.

“Hi. Why do you sound so happy?” Ashton wondered; he never felt grumpy in the early hours of the day himself but Luke had told him only hours ago that he wasn’t a morning person _at all._

“I’ve been awake since seven…” Luke admitted.

“I’ve been cleaning.” He added shyly, his voice so soft Ashton had almost missed it.

“You didn’t have to.” The older boy reassured him with a chuckle, but Luke only shrugged.

“It really was a mess, it was a bit embarrassing.”

The eldest of the two looked around the apartment. It was still a bit messy in his eyes, but he obviously didn’t comment on it.

 

“Hey, did you see this yet?” Luke asked as he sat down on the couch, pulling his laptop in his lap. The older boy sat down right next to him so he could see what the boy was talking about.

He hit the play button and a YouTube video started; it wasn’t one of Luke’s own.

 

A picture of Luke and Ashton getting out of the car together was shown.

‘ _Yesterday, a mysterious boy was spotted hanging out with singer Ashton Irwin all day!_

 _The two arrived at Irwin’s house together.’_ A female voice enthusiastically told.

Then, a picture of the two getting into Ashton’s house was seen.

‘ _They arrived at Ashton’s place around noon and the blonde boy didn’t leave until in the middle of the night!’_

Pictures of Ashton standing in the door opening and Luke walking off with a shy smile on his face filled the screen. Ashton figured Luke hadn’t seen the photographers. He didn’t blame him, he hadn’t seen them either.

_‘What do you guys think, did Ashton just replace Calum and gotten a new BFF?’_

 

Luke hit the escape button to shrink the video to its normal size and Ashton chuckled awkwardly for he didn’t really know what else to say or do.

“She didn’t say anything about us possibly dating but she did practically imply it, didn’t she? It’s a nice start, after only one day!” The YouTuber beamed at Ashton but the older boy didn’t really return his enthusiasm. When Luke noticed the serious look on his face, he furrowed his brows.

“What’s wrong?”

Ashton shook his head.

“Nothing. It’s just a bit scary you know? I’ve been wanting to come out for quite a while and now it’s really happening.”

“Do you regret it? Because you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.” Luke told him, placing a comforting hand on the older boy’s shoulder but he shook his head once again.

“No, I really wanna go through with it. It’s just weird.”

“Okay. But you better tell me if you ever get second thoughts, we can talk to Angela and just stop it, okay?”

Ashton nodded this time, trying to shake the thoughts away because this is what he wanted. He hadn’t expected it to happen with a fake boyfriend he didn’t even know but still… Once this was over he’d never have to lie and hide again.

 

“So what should we do today?” Ashton asked, just to change the subject.

“Uh, we could watch movies again or go out for coffee maybe?” Luke suggested.

“We’ve got dinner tonight; I don’t really feel like going out together twice today.” Ashton quickly said. Luke nodded in understanding but the small smile on his face had faded.

“I mean, because it would be too much you know, in such short time?” and Luke nodded again.

“We could jam for a bit? I’ve heard some of your covers on YouTube, your voice is rad!” Ashton’s face lit up as he came up with the idea and Luke’s did as well.

“Yeah, that would be awesome!” He said, getting up to get his guitar.

“Do you have a guitar for me as well?”

“You can have my guitar, I’ll take the keyboard.” Luke handed the instrument to the famous singer and then turned around to get his keyboard. Ashton wondered how he was going to fit that in between the coffee table and the couch but he didn’t voice it.

 

\---

 

The two blondes spent an hour and a half playing songs and singing at the top of their lungs, probably annoying Luke’s neighbours in the process. He had said they were used to it by now though.

Then they had played some board games together and Luke had been working on his daily blog. He hadn’t mentioned the singer in it but they had made sure his audience would ‘accidentally’ hear Ashton’s voice once or twice, just to make sure they knew it was actually him who had spent the day before with him.

 _“They’re going to love this”_ Luke had giggled as he had uploaded the video.

“ _Twitter was already going crazy over us being ‘friends’”_

 

The rest of the day was spent watching movies and getting ready for dinner. Ashton had asked Henry to bring him a button up shirt for he couldn’t really go on a date in a tank top and both boys had spent a bit of extra time on their appearance to make sure the people would get it.

 

“So, uh- do I like… hold your hand when we get out?” Ashton asked, feeling himself getting nervous as they had almost reached the restaurant. His manager had already informed them there would be some paparazzi.

“Maybe that’s too obvious. You can place your hand on my back, if you want? I mean, it’s friendly but a bit flirty as well…” Luke suggested and Ashton wondered – once again – if the boy had had this job before or if Angela had made him prepare for all of this; Luke seemed to know exactly what he was doing.

“Yeah, okay, sounds good.” Ashton muttered, taking a deep breath as the car came to a halt. He had never really liked paparazzi and he knew they’d want to get as many shots as possible tonight.

“Ready?” Luke asked, looking him in the eyes and obviously noticing Ashton’s discomfort.

The older boy nodded and the car door was being pushed open. Luke got out first and Ashton could already hear the cameras snapping picture after picture.

Then the singer exited the car and he placed his large hand on Luke’s lower back, practically pushing the boy inside to get away from the men as quickly as possible. There weren’t that many photographers but still too many for Ashton’s liking. They were screaming questions into their directions, mainly about Luke, but the older boy chose to ignore them.

The YouTuber pretended to be hiding his face but purposely did it poorly so his own fans would still recognize him. He did walk fast though so before the singer even knew it, they were safely inside.

 

“Mister Irwin?” A shy girl asked and Ashton nodded.

“This way please.” The waitress said, bringing Ashton and his date towards a booth where people from outside the restaurant – and even most people inside of it – couldn’t see them. Ashton was thankful for it.

For the first time they had left the car, Ashton looked up to Luke and noticed the boy looking a bit shocked.

“What’s up?” he asked the boy.

“That was intense.” He forced out a laugh and awkwardly looked away from Ashton.

“I really don’t know how you deal with this every single day.”

And Ashton figured he was talking about the cameras that had been shoved into their faces, which seemed odd to Ashton since Luke had been looking like all of that had been nothing new.

“You get used to it.” The older boy shrugged, deciding not to ask Luke if this really had been the first time it had happened.

“Yeah, Angela said the same.” He nodded.

“It’s just… I had tried to prepare myself for it, y’know? But it’s just… intense.” Luke chuckled again but this time it sounded genuine and Ashton smiled back at the boy.

 

They were handed a menu after that and both boys scanned the list of dishes in silence. When Ashton secretly glanced over at the younger boy, he noticed he was reading the side where the desserts were listed instead of the appetizers and main dishes, like most people did.

When the boy looked up and their eyes met, Ashton winked before going back to selecting something to eat. He didn’t miss the pink on Luke’s face though.

 

“How long do you think it’ll take them to figure it out?” the YouTuber asked after they had ordered their drinks and an appetizer. 

“I have no idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d just ask me the first chance they get.” Ashton chuckled.

“The fans can be pretty blunt.”

 

\---

 

“Can you sing that last part one more time Ash?” a voice through his headphone said and Ashton gave the guy behind the panel a thumbs up.

Angela was on the other side of the glass as well, watching as the singer was recording the last bits of the album. This was his last recording day.

 

The boy took a deep breath and then exhaled as the music started again. He didn’t have to look at the paper in front of him to remember the words he and Calum had written down. Ashton had already recorded the melody so they were working on the high harmonies now. It hurt his throat a bit but he knew he could do it.

 

_Won’t be long, won’t be long, won’t be long._

_You know it’s gonna get better._

“Okay, that’s a wrap. Good job.” Angela was the one who had said it.

“Can I listen to it?” the singer asked. He was a bit of a perfectionist and not as easily satisfied as his manager.

“Of course. But we don’t have time to record this another five times…”

She knew him too well sometimes.

Ashton nodded and then he heard the music, along with the melody and his high harmonies. He knew they still had to do some editing to make it a whole so he only focused on the last part he had just recorded.

He deemed it better than the first three tries so he removed the headphones and got out of the booth.

The young boy hadn’t really realized how tired he had been until now.

 

“Henry will take you home now. Luke will be coming over in an hour.” Angela inquired him.

“Okay.”

He hadn’t seen Luke in four whole days because it would’ve been way too obvious if they had been hanging out every single day all of sudden. Though Ashton liked Luke, he wished he could’ve come over the next day instead of tonight for he was tired but he knew he didn’t really have a say in this.

 

The celebrity had been home for a little over half an hour when the bell rang. He opened the door, only to find not only Luke standing in front of his door, but Calum as well.

“Hi.” The raven haired boy chuckled at Ashton’s confused expression.

“I’m here to meet the boyfriend.” He said, pointing at the blonde right next to him.

“Oh…” Ashton blinked sheepishly.

“Well, as long as one of you guys makes me dinner, I’m not gonna complain.” The eldest of the three shrugged as he stepped aside to let his ‘boyfriend’ and best friend in.

He walked over to his couch and let himself fall down on it, sighing dramatically and closing his eyes. Calum immediately sat down but Luke was still a bit shy despite having been here once before. He sat down in one of the single chairs instead of the empty space next to Ashton, making it obviously clear they weren’t actually dating at all.

Ashton didn’t mind, but Calum – apparently – did.

“No. Luke, sit next to Ashton.” He told the youngest boy.

The singer looked over at him and he seemed to be ready to ask why but he did it anyways.

“Now put your arm around him.” The song-writer told his friend. He _did_ ask why though.

“Why?”

“Because snapchat.” Calum said, pulling out his phone and hitting a button.

“Did Angela put you up to this?” Ashton asked, suddenly feeling a bit suspicious.

Calum shrugged.

“No, but I can help, can’t I?”

He told the singer to pull the younger boy even closer to him and Luke not to look into the camera but at Ashton and then he took a picture. The kiwi boy showed it at the couple and after their approval he added the text ‘ _guys’ night’_ and added the picture to his story. 

 

“Done.” He said, shoving his phone back into the pocket of his tight jeans and then he sat down again. Ashton withdrew his arm and Luke created some distance between their bodies. He didn’t move away from the couch though. Calum watched.

“You guys need to work on your body language if you want to make this credible.” He pointed out.

“You guys still look like strangers when you sit like that.”

Ashton sighed in frustration.

“It’s not that easy since we practically _are_ strangers.”

“I know. That’s why you need to work on it.”

 

Ashton looked over at Luke, who hadn’t said a word yet. This far, he had known very well how to handle all of this. He seemed to be a bit lost this time though.

Maybe he had figured out the theory but didn’t know how to actually act on it. He had told Ashton to put his hand on his back a few days before, but that was a whole lot different from actually being pressed up against each other.

 

“I mean, have you practiced being close yet? Like hugs and kisses?” Calum wiggled his eyebrows teasingly and Ashton gently hit his arm to make him stop.

“We don’t have to do that yet. We’ll practice when we need to. For the first four weeks all we have to do is hold hands in public and post pictures.”

Ashton looked over at Luke again.

“It won’t be credible if we already make out in the middle of the street.” He added helpfully despite the bright red colour on his cheeks.

“Can you please make food now? Luke can’t cook and I am tired.” Ashton asked and Calum nodded before getting up.

“Of course. I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone.” He winked and then the singer was blushing as well.

 

\---

 

“This is delicious Cal.” Luke told the raven haired boy for the third time that night.

The slightly older boy giggled and thanked him once again.

“Hey, my mac and cheese was pretty good too, right?” Ashton piped up, trying to pout despite the smile on his face.

“It would’ve been if the bottom hadn’t been pitch black.” Luke chuckled.

“That is not my fault; you didn’t set the timer right.”

“I already told you I can’t cook for shit. Besides, it’s not my problem your oven has more buttons than a freaking cockpit.”

Ashton giggled.

“I’m never letting you near my kitchen again.” He decided but Luke didn’t seem pleased by that.

“Hey, I know how to heat up-“

“Twitter is blowing up.” Calum interrupted their banter suddenly, showing the screen of his phone to the two blondes.

 

 _‘Is that @LukeHemmings????’_ A girl had tweeted, along with the picture Calum had made less than an hour and a half ago.

 

‘ _OMG they look so cute together!’_ Another fan had tweeted the exact same picture, as well as all others.

_‘Why are they sitting so close? Ashton is mine’,_ a crying emoji added to it.

 

_‘GUYS MY HEART’_

_‘Is it too early to come up with ship names? Cause #lashton is too cute.’_

 

“Ship names?” Ashton questioned, raising an eyebrow while reading the last tweet.

“People ‘ship’ celebrities who are or who they want to be in a relation _ship_ together. A ship name is a combination of the couples name because ‘Lashton’ is shorter than ‘Luke and Ashton’” Luke helpfully explained. Ashton guessed he knew all that because he was a YouTuber and spent quite some time on the internet.

“Which means your fans already ship us.” He giggled and Ashton gave Calum his phone back.

“And they already recognized you.” Calum pointed out. Luke nodded enthusiastically.

Ashton couldn’t help but chuckle at the two other boys’ enthusiasm, but he did realize that it was really starting now. He could still go back if he wanted to but he couldn’t wait for long anymore.

 

“Hey, talking about shipping…” Luke suddenly said, breaking the comfortable silence.

“How’s Michael?”

The blonde looked at the grinning songwriter.

“Pretty great. He’s taking me out for dinner tomorrow. I don’t know where though.” The brown skinned boy shrugged. Ashton could see a shimmer in his eyes though, which only appeared whenever he had a brilliant idea – which was usually related to his songs – or whenever he was very enthusiastic about something. Or rather some _one,_ Ashton knew. He didn’t think it was fair that Calum had found himself a nice date while helping his best friend find someone he had to pretend to be in love with but despite being a bit jealous, he was still happy for his friend.

Admittedly, Luke was attractive and nice but the situation was pretty awkward and slightly fucked-up. How could he really get to know the boy while pretending to already know every single little thing about him?

 

\---

 

It had been eight days since the first picture of ‘Lashton’ had found its way onto the internet and while the fans were very curious and didn’t really stop talking about it, interviewers hadn’t asked Ashton about the YouTuber at all. They were spotted together several times but the magazines kept talking about them being friends despite the fans’ suspicions.

Fans had tried dm’ing them on twitter and Luke’s fans had asked about Ashton in the comment section of his videos. Angela had told them not to respond though.

She wanted the world to see for real, and not to find out through social media, though Ashton wasn’t sure why.

That’s why she had told the young blondes to ‘step up their game’, which meant they had to hold hands now and be closer to each other whenever they were in public.

 

“Wanna get some coffee? We could make it a date.”

Luke suddenly looked up from his laptop, his eyes looking straight into Ashton’s.

“Yeah, sure.” He easily agreed. It was not like he had anything better to do at the moment, for he had the rest of the day off and he knew Angela would like them going out together; especially on a simple date like getting coffee for she had told the two not to make their relationship too obvious yet. She didn’t want them to shove it into everybody’s face.

Ashton got up and grabbed his and Luke’s coats.

 

The car ride towards the nearest coffee shop was a bit uncomfortable. Ashton figured it was because they both realized things were about to change between them.

They had gotten to know each other quite well in the past week, but hand-holding was still something they hadn’t done yet. They had kept their distance this far and Ashton didn’t know why but he was afraid it was going to be awkward.

He tried to tell himself not to be so childish because how hard could it be to hold another boy’s hand? There was nothing weird about it, yet it seemed a bit intimate and he just wasn’t good at that kind of stuff.

The singer wasn’t sure if the fans would buy it either, but maybe that was just an excuse his brain had come up with since he was still a bit nervous to come out. Luke knew this though, which made it a bit easier.

“Ready?” Luke asked once Ashton had parked his car. The elder of the two nodded and then they got out.

As soon as they were close enough to each other, Luke grabbed Ashton’s larger hand in his own, intertwined their fingers and led them towards the entrance of the shop. His thumb was rubbing circles into the singer’s skin, which was surprisingly calming.

Ashton pushed the door open and let Luke step in first. He followed soon after for their hands were still intertwined tightly.

There was a short line in front of them and Ashton could tell Luke did it on purpose when he moved in close, his chest pressed against Ashton’s bicep as he quietly asked the older boy what he wanted to drink.

He was just about to answer when he heard his name and some giggling. Both boys looked up to see a group of young girls looking at them and Ashton assumed two of them were taking pictures of Luke and him.

The celebrity quickly looked away, pretending he hadn’t seen them and Luke reassuringly squeezed his hand.

“I think I’ll have hot chocolate… Don’t feel like coffee today.” He answered and the younger boy nodded.

Luke hummed in response as they took a step forward.

“Look at me.” The YouTuber whispered.

“They’re taking pictures. Pretend this is a real date.”

Ashton looked at Luke and smiled one of his smallest and softest smiles, like the boy next to him had said something very cute. He used this opportunity to have a good look at the blonde.

The singer had seen his piercing blue eyes many times before but it was different from up close; Ashton could see the tiny sparks of ocean blue in between the sky blue now and the slightly darker outline of his iris. The elder of the two could also count the few rare freckles on the boy’s face and see how the black metal of his lip ring disappeared into his skin.

It didn’t take long before Luke started blushing a bit, uncomfortable under Ashton’s stare so Ashton looked away, a blush on his own cheeks as well; he hadn’t really realized how intense he had been watching the boy.

 

Soon enough they made it to the front of the line. Luke ordered and Ashton paid.

The young blonde didn’t decline or complain, for it was something they had agreed on; Luke was working for Ashton, so it was only normal the oldest would pay for everything. Plus he had more money, but he obviously hadn’t mentioned that.

They walked over to an empty table in the corner where barely anyone could see them.

Ashton hated to admit it, but he actually wished Luke hadn’t let go of his hand; it had been rather comfortable. The YouTube was sitting closer to him than he usually did when they were alone though, their legs firmly pressed against each other, which was almost just as nice as holding onto his hand.

“Michael called yesterday. He asked if I wanted to hang out with him tomorrow…” Luke said as he carefully took a sip of his piping hot coffee.

“I’ve got to be at the studio in the morning and I’ve got a photoshoot afterwards, so you can take the day off.” Ashton told him and Luke nodded.

“Okay, thanks.”

“I’m pretty sure he only wants to hang out so he can gossip about Calum all day, but whatever.” Luke chuckled and Ashton joined him.

“Calum didn’t really shut up about him either, last time I saw him.”

 

“How did you and Calum become friends?” Luke asked, probably because they still needed to get to know each other better than they already did.

“We worked on my first album together. Angela had hired him, she thought it would be better if I’d write with someone my age.”

“We often went for beers after work, and we just clicked, I guess. It’s nice to have someone who knows what the music industry is like. Calum might not be famous but he works with a lot of big artists so he knows what it is like, you know?”

Luke nodded in understanding.

“How did you and Michael meet?” Ashton asked curiously. He had been wondering since the day he had found out the two were friends, for Michael was quite the punker with his tattoos, piercings and colourful hair while Luke only had a lip ring that didn’t really succeed to make him look as punk as he wanted to.

“We met at our very first day of high school.” A big grin appeared on the younger boy’s face and Ashton got ready for an interesting story.

“I bumped into Michael and we both fell to the floor. Everybody laughed. He hated me for almost a year, pushed me against the lockers and shit.”

Ashton furrowed his brows.

“One day, I was so sick of it. All I had done was bump into him, on _accident_. So I called him out on it and we fought. I had a black eye and Michael’s nose was bleeding so badly!” Luke giggled a little, which confused Ashton even more.

“We ended up in the nurse’s office together and we were forced to talk it out. Michael didn’t want to apologize at first, but he did compliment me on my ‘mean right hook’ and well, that’s how we ended up being best friends I guess.” The boy shrugged, deciding to end his story here but Ashton wasn’t having it.

“What do you mean, ‘that’s how we ended up being best friends’?  How does that happen?”

“Well, I laughed and said he wasn’t so bad himself I think, and then he said I should’ve done this earlier because he had been an ass all year and I just knew that was his way of apologizing. So I asked him if he wanted to hang out at mine that afternoon because I knew he didn’t have that many friends and it just went from there.” Luke patiently explained.

“That’s awesome.” Ashton chuckled.

 

They finished the rest of their drinks in silence and because Ashton never liked to stay somewhere for too long after being spotted by fans, they decided to go home.

The older boy grabbed Luke’s hand and together they walked towards the exit.

As soon as the door opened and the couple stepped outside, the sound of screaming filled their ears. At least a hundred girls where outside, all screaming and trying to get as close to the singer and YouTuber as possible. The fans, as well as a couple of photographers, tried to get pictures of the two boys.

Ashton was used to this, was used to being pushed and having phones shoved into his face, knew what it was like to feel hands all over him and to hear people screaming his name from the top of their lungs.

Luke, on the other hand, didn’t.

He was practically squeezing Ashton’s hand and pressing himself up to the singer to get away from the mob. His blue eyes were looking around nervously and the older boy didn’t like this look on him.

So the eldest let go of Luke’s hand and protectively wrapped his arm around his shoulder, pulling him even closer to himself, wanting to guard the boy from the people around them. He held his free hand out in front of him, pushing people aside when necessary so they could get to the car as soon as possible.

“Ashton, is he your boyfriend?” one of the paparazzi’s asked, but the singer didn’t reply.

“What’s your name kid?” he then asked Luke, but he kept his mouth shut as well.

Ashton pulled open the door to the passenger’s seat of his car as soon as they had reached it and Luke hurried to get inside. Then the singer walked around the car and got in, driving away as quickly as possible without hurting anyone in the process.

 

“You alright?” Ashton asked, quickly looking at the blonde next to him before returning his attention to the road in front of him.

Luke only nodded.

 

They were able to get out of the car and into Ashton’s house without anyone bugging them and Luke let himself fall on the rather large couch. He still looked a bit pale and shaken and Ashton didn’t know what to do or say.

“I’m sorry about that.” He opted to say.

Luke shook his head.

“It’s not your fault.”

“Like I said, I just need to get used to it. I knew this would happen when I signed the contract.”

Ashton nodded, feeling relieved. He had been afraid the mob had deterred Luke, had made him too scared to go on with it but that didn’t seem to be the case.

 

The singer was still standing in the middle of the room. He kinda wanted to embrace the boy, cuddle up with him in the hope it would calm him a bit, to reassure it was alright, that he was safe here but he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to.

Yes, they had been that close before but that had been when they were in public, when they had been acting. This was different.

It was just frustrating that Ashton could only be close to Luke when people were watching.

“Do you want a drink?” he asked instead.

 

\---

 

“Okay, can you change into the last outfit now? We’re almost done here.”

Ashton sighed. He knew a last outfit meant he still had to stand still and look into certain directions for at least half an hour. He had never liked photoshoots; they were so boring. He was a singer, not a model.

 

Luckily, Calum had decided to tag along. He boy had been nice company at first but after a while he had grown bored as well and now he was on one of the couches, flipping through a magazine and humming along to the music that was playing.

Every now and then he did look up and make faces at Ashton to make him laugh whenever the photographer told him to be serious though, so it was still better than being alone.

 

The singer walked off so he could change in private. He quickly pulled of his shirt, kicked of his shoes and pulled down the tight jeans and changed into the new outfit.

The jeans were a dark shade of Bordeaux. The tank top and shirt he had to wear were both black, as were the shoes. The jeans were quite short and didn’t really reach his ankles. Ashton never liked these kind of jeans; his ankles always felt cold.

He didn’t button up the shirt as he was told and one of the women of the crew quickly fixed his slightly messed up hair.

The boy posed again and the cameras starting flashing once more. He had run out of poses over an hour ago but the photographer didn’t really seem to mind him using the same ones over and over again.

 

When he was almost done, the door opened and Ashton curiously looked up to see who had entered the room for most of the crew was inside. The first thing he saw was bright red hair and pale skin beneath it. Ashton knew it was Michael. Luke was next to him, chatting and laughing at his friend.

The two blondes locked eyes and Ashton winked at the younger boy and the singer was pretty sure the photographer had caught it on camera. Luke smiled shyly and looked away.

“Mikey!” Calum suddenly said, finally noticing the two boys.

“What are you doing here?” he asked as he got up and quickly made his way over to the boy. He pulled the pale boy into a tight hug.

“Luke wanted to come by so I tagged along.” He shrugged.

“I didn’t even know you’d be here to be honest.”

Calum pouted, not happy to hear the boy hadn’t come for him.

“But I am very glad you are.” The redhead chuckled, placing a sloppy kiss on the tanned boy’s cheek.

“Boys, would you mind hanging out in Ashton’s dressing room? He’s almost done but I am pretty sure this won’t work with all three of you here.” Angela said. The singer knew she had to try her hardest so sound kind for she lost her patience easily.

Calum nodded and grabbed the two boys’ wrist to lead them towards the room, leaving Ashton alone with Angela, the make-up artists, his hair dresser and photographer. He couldn’t wait for them to wrap it up.

 

\---

 

 

“Ash, did you see this yet?” Luke asked once they were in the back of Henry’s car together. He handed the older boy his phone and told Ashton to scroll down for a bit.

Luke’s entire dashboard was filled with pictures from the day before, when Luke and Ashton had been seen leaving the coffee shop together.

There were some pictures from inside the shop as well and Ashton simply knew those were the pictures the girls had made when they had been waiting in line.

He brought the phone closer to his eyes so he could see it a bit better. The singer could only see Luke’s back and the side of his own face but it was very obvious Ashton was looking at the YouTuber. He was wearing a small, fond smile and it was so easy to believe he had at least a crush on the blonde. He didn’t though. Sure, Luke was nice and all but Ashton barely knew him; they were good friends at most.

 

He scrolled down further and Luke shuffled a bit closer to him so they could both see the pictures and comments.

Most comments were positive, wishing ‘Lashton’ was actually real and such. Some were very negative, saying mean things about the two boys and calling them names.

 

When the eldest of the two scrolled down further they came across a drawing of the two of them. They were standing close to each other, much like they had been in the coffee shop and they even wore the same clothes. The drawing was from another perspective though so you could see Luke’s front. Ashton thought he was very well drawn; this nose was exactly the same as his real one and they hadn’t forgotten about his lip ring. Cartoon-Luke was blushing though and instead of watching him, cartoon-Ashton was kissing his cheek.

“They are so fast... It’s been less than twenty-four hours since the pictures were made.” The YouTuber chuckled, admiring the drawing while he said so.

“It’s pretty good.” Ashton added and Luke hummed in response.

 

He started scrolling down again. Most posts were pictures and text posts about the two but more people had made drawings. Some were better than the others but most of them were of Luke and Ashton simply holding hands or kissing.

One of the drawings showed them on a couch together, Luke straddling Ashton’s lap and the singer’s hands in the younger boy’s hair.

That’s when Ashton had had enough.

He gave Luke his phone back with a mad blush on his cheeks and he refused to look at the boy.

 

\---

 

They went to Ashton’s place once again, partly because Luke didn’t really want the paparazzi to find out where he lived.

“I’m gonna take a shower first, wash the make-up of my face.” Ashton told the boy.

“You can do whatever you want… Me casa es tu casa and all that.”

They had known each other for ten days now, Ashton knew he could easily leave the boy alone in his house for a while.

“Yeah, okay.”

“If you want something to eat, just get it. As long as you don’t light my kitchen on fire.” Ashton giggled and with that, he went upstairs and grabbed his stuff.

 

It was routine to take a shower after a photoshoot or interview for his make-up artists always put quite some foundation on his skin. He wasn’t a teenager anymore but he still suffered from occasional pimples and he did have a few little scars from when he was young and didn’t treat his skin right.

The singer grabbed a clean pair of boxers, threw his clothes in the laundry basket, grabbed a towel and turned on the water. As he waited for the water to warm up, he started humming a song they had played during the photoshoot.

 

_‘Back to the street where we began,_

_Feeling as good as lovers can, you know._

_Yeah we’re feeling so good.’_

He carefully reached out and let the water hit his arm. It was warm enough so he took a step forward so the water could soak his hair and run over his face, washing away the skin coloured make-up.

_‘Pickin’ up things we shouldn’t read,_

_It looks like the end of history as we know._

_It’s just the end of the world.’_

 

The water was still warming up and the glass of his shower cabin was fogging up. Ashton grabbed his shampoo and poured some onto his left hand.

He continued singing as he massaged it into his scalp.

 

‘ _Back to the street where we began,_

_Feeling as good as love, you could, you can._

He kept his eyes tight shut so the soap wouldn’t get into his eyes and hurt him.

 

_‘Into a place where thoughts can bloom,_

_Into a room where it’s nine in the afternoon._

_And we know that it could be,_

_And we know that it should._

_An you know that you feel it too,_

_‘Cause it’s nine in the afternoon.’_

 

It didn’t take long to wash out the shampoo so Ashton turned off the water again. He grabbed his towel and dried his hair.

 

_‘And your eyes are the size of the moon._

_You could ‘cause you can, so you do._

_We’re feeling so good,_

_Just the way that we do,_

_When it’s nine in the afternoon.’_

 

He put on his boxers, got out of the bathroom, put on some sweatpants and then went back to the living room. There was still dripping some water from his hair and down his chest but he didn’t really care. It was quite warm so it wasn’t necessary to put on a shirt.

 

“Hey.” Luke looked up from his phone. The singer could practically feel the boy’s blue eyes taking in his naked torso but he forced himself not to care; he was his fake boyfriend after all and soon enough they’d have to share beds so it was unavoidable anyways.

“Hi.”

The YouTuber was lying on the couch, his long legs taking up all the space. Because Ashton wanted to watch some telly – and because he really needed to do something about them still not acting at least like best friends yet – he picked up the boy’s legs, sat down and rested the boy’s feet in his lap. Luke raised a questioning eyebrow at him but didn’t speak up so Ashton counted that as a win.

“So, I might have recorded you singing in the shower because the fans will probably love it… Do you think I should post it?” Luke mumbled softly, his eyes locked on the screen of his mobile phone and his cheeks a bright red. Ashton thought it was cute.

“Can I hear it first?”

“Sure.” Luke said, obviously feeling a little bit less embarrassed already.

He hit a button and then Ashton could hear water running and his own voice singing ‘nine in the afternoon’ by Panic! At The Disco. It didn’t sound half bad.

“Yeah, you can upload it.”

“Okay.”

 

Out of curiosity, Ashton checked Luke’s Instagram. He had captioned the video with ‘bathroom acoustics’ and had tagged Ashton, as if him hearing him sing while taking a shower was completely ordinary.

“I like the caption.” Ashton giggled.

“They’re gonna lose they’re shit.”

“They already are.” Luke grinned.

 

The boys read the comments together, laughing at the hysterical comments from both their fans. They used so many crying emojis and ‘OMG’s and one girl had even said she’d sell her parents, her house, her dog and even her best friend only to be in Ashton’s house for one day and hear him sing in the shower. Ashton dm’ed her just to see how she would react but she had barely been able to form correct words so he had decided not to do that again.

 

\---

 

Luke was just about to go home when Ashton’s phone rang. It didn’t surprise the singer that it was his manager; she was the only one who called him this time of day.

“Put me on speaker.” She said after she had greeted the young celebrity.

Ashton did as he was told and he held the phone so both Luke and he could hear their boss.

“So, you guys know they took pictures of you two the other day and since Ashton will be on Ellen tomorrow, I am pretty sure she will ask about Luke. Now, I need you, Ashton, to be as credible as possible. We’ve talked about this; I need you to let the world _see_ you are in love with Luke, not just _hear_. I want Luke to tag alone and be backstage and I want the crew to see you together before the interview. So do whatever you need to do as long as they believe you. If they find out this is all just for publicity, we have a _huge_ problem. I don’t care if you two sleep in one bed together or cuddle all evening or whatever, just make sure you are comfortable around each other.”

“Henry will pick you two up at nine in the morning.”

“Okay.” Ashton mumbled.

It was really going to happen now. He had to talk about meeting Luke and falling in love with him in less than ten hours.

“Questions?” Angela asked.

Luke shook his head, only realizing the woman couldn’t see that a second or two later.

“No.” he said.

“Good. I trust you two can make this work.”

“Oh, and good job on the video Luke. I’ll see you two tomorrow.” She added.

“Bye.” Ashton and Luke said in unison, causing them to giggle.

The singer pressed the red button on his phone and then looked at Luke, not knowing what to say or do next.

 

“I think we better do what she said.” Luke muttered, avoiding Ashton’s eyes. The singer was glad he had said it though because he had been thinking the exact same thing.

“Yeah, you’re right.” He told the younger boy.

“But how are we gonna do that?”

“Maybe we should practice kissing? Once that isn’t uncomfortable anymore, nothing will be, right?”

Ashton didn’t even have a chance to say anything before Luke started making up excuses.

“I mean, we don’t have to – obviously – but I thought it would be good to get it over with and maybe…”

“Luke.” Ashton interrupted him, an amused smile on his face.

“It’s okay. I agree.”

“Let’s just admit this is a bit awkward for both of us and get it over with, okay?”

The younger of the two nodded.

 

Ashton carefully scooted over so he was sitting close enough to the YouTuber to kiss him. They locked eyes and Luke chuckled nervously. Ashton echoed him.

The singer leaned in a bit, but Luke didn’t move yet.

“May I?” Ashton. He watched as the YouTuber bit his lip and nodded.

He leaned in forward, as did the younger blonde and they met halfway.

The kiss was very hesitant at first, just the touch of their lips. Ashton could feel the cold metal of Luke’s piercing against his lip but it didn’t move. They were both holding their breath and didn’t dare to do anything with their hands.

Then Ashton told himself he was being stupid and that they were making this only worse. So he pulled back and experimentally sucked on the boy’s bottom lip a bit.

That’s when Luke started kissing back. He moved his hand so it was cupping Ashton’s cheek and he started moving his mouth as well.

The singer placed his hand on the back of Luke’s neck while they continued practicing.

They didn’t use tongue yet; they probably never had to because Ashton didn’t like PDA, especially not with fans or paparazzi around.

Luke pulled back first and Ashton couldn’t help but stare at the boy’s lip ring. Without even thinking about it he moved in again, taking Luke’s bottom lip in between his teeth gently, making sure not to hurt him.

The YouTuber dropped his hand so it was on Ashton’s bicep and eventually the singer decided to break the kiss. He rested his forehead against Luke’s and looked into his impressively blue eyes.

“That wasn’t too bad…” the youngest mumbled. It sounded a bit like a question and Ashton didn’t like that.

“No, it wasn’t.” he reassured him.

 

“Do you want to stay in the guest room? We have to be up early anyways and I’d like to go over how we met one more time. You can borrow a shirt of mine if you want to and I think I have a new toothbrush somewhere.” Ashton suggested and Luke easily agreed.

 

\---

 

Ashton was eating his cereal and reading the paper when Luke came walking into the kitchen, wearing nothing but his boxers and an old t-shirt and still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. The singer watched as the younger boy walked up to him and leaned in, pressing his lips against Ashton’s.

“Morning.” He mumbled, his voice hoarse from sleep. He opened multiple cabinets in his search for a bowl for his cereal since he was just as addicted to the breakfast as Ashton was, acting like nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

When he had found a bowl, he placed it on the kitchen table and sat across from Ashton, taking the cereal and milk and filling his bowl.

Luke didn’t seem to realize what had happened until they locked eyes and the elder of the two raised a questioning eyebrow at him.

Ashton wasn’t mad or anything, but he was surprised to say the least. The boy had been so hesitant yesterday and now he had initiated the kiss as if this had happened thousands of times before.  

“Uh, it was to get in the mood… For the interview, I mean…” he muttered and Ashton suppressed the grin that was tugging at his lips.

“Okay.” He said in a serious voice and reached out to grab Luke’s free hand.

The younger boy blushed and seemed quite surprised but Ashton shrugged and repeated Luke’s own words.

 

They held each other’s hands while getting into the back of Ashton’s driver’s car even though no one was there to watch and during the trip, the two made sure to sit as close to each other as possible while they both minded their own business on their phones.

“Hey Ash.” Luke all but whispered once they were almost there.

“Hmm?” Ashton hummed.

“No one is gonna suspect a thing.”

The young celebrity wasn’t sure why but for some reason he had preferred if Luke hadn’t said that.

He forced a smile onto his face and nodded.

“Yeah.”

 

The car came to a halt and the two boys got out. A small group of fans had gathered but thanks to the fences, they couldn’t come close to the two. Luke still moved as close to Ashton as possible, a look of slight distress on his face so the singer quickly wrapped his arm around Luke’s waist, pulling the boy against his side and keeping him there while making his way towards the entrance. The crowd started screaming a little louder as they watched it happen.

Once inside, Ashton was told to follow a woman to his dressing room. He didn’t let go of Luke, not even when they were alone in the dressing room.

 

The woman who was supposed to do his make-up and hair wasn’t in yet, so Ashton moved so he was standing in front of his fake boyfriend instead of next to him and carefully kissed him on the lips, his hand still resting on his waist. He didn’t really know why he did it; it just felt right. He told himself it was to get rid of the slight tension between them, and not because he simply felt like it. Ashton could feel the younger boy smile against his lips before kissing back and wrapping his arms around his neck. The singer placed his free hand on the other side of Luke’s waist and pulled him against his chest a little too hard, causing Luke to chuckle.

“It’s been two weeks or so and you’re already manhandling me.”

“Sorry.” Ashton mumbled, his lips brushing against Luke’s before firmly pressing them against his again. He wasn’t sorry at all.

 

“Are you nervous?” The youngest asked once they pulled apart. He didn’t really move away from Ashton, stayed within kissing distance which the singer thought was definitely a good thing.

“Honestly... Yeah.” He admitted. Luke hummed.

“You’ll feel better afterwards. I mean, it’s scary and like, there might be nasty comments and stuff, but it feels good to be able to be yourself completely, y’know?” Luke said.

“Yeah. Thanks.” Ashton tried to ignore the tiny voice in his brain that said that he still wouldn’t be himself _completely_ for he would be lying about being in love with someone. But it was for the better, right?

“I’m gonna find something to drink, do you want something too?”

“No, I’m good.” Ashton smiled. He could feel Luke retracting his arms so he quickly pressed on last kiss to the boy’s lips, for good measure and all.

 

Only two minutes after Luke had left the dressing room, his hair dresser had entered and everything had been a chaos. He had to get dressed, look as good as possible, talk to Angela about what he should or shouldn’t say and then someone had attached a little mic to his shirt. Before he knew it, he was sitting on Ellen’s couch, talking to her about the upcoming album and a charity case he was going to take part in.

He knew it wouldn’t take long before she would move on to the last and ‘most important’ part of the interview.

 

“So Ashton, you’ve been spotted with a cute blonde boy a few days ago… Would you mind telling us who he is?”

The singer forced a smile onto his face. He didn’t like how fake interviews usually were; of course Ellen and the audience already knew who Luke was.

“His name is Luke Hemmings.” He said and then a picture showed up behind him. It was a picture of Luke and him holding hands outside of the coffee shop.

“And you’re… friends?” she asked carefully. Ashton shook his head. That’s when the picture of the couple inside of the coffee shop, standing a bit too close to each other to be just friends.

“He’s my boyfriend.” The singer firmly spoke and the audience started screaming on the top of their lungs. Ellen and Ashton both chuckled.

“So you are into men.” She said. It wasn’t a question but Ashton knew he was supposed to answer anyways.

“I am. I’m bi.” He clarified.

“Is there a reason you never told anyone? I mean, did you keep it a secret on purpose or…?”

“No, I didn’t.” He lied easily.

“I didn’t really know I was into guys, I guess. But then Luke came along and I just fell so hard, I couldn’t deny it anymore, you know?”

Ellen nodded.

“That must’ve been weird, I reckon. To find out you’re not straight after twenty-one years of thinking you were, I mean.” Ellen said.

Ashton didn’t have to think long about it. He had never been scared of his own feelings or whatever, so the answer was easy.

“No, it wasn’t. I didn’t think it was a bad thing to have these feelings so it was really easy giving into them.”

The interviewer smiled at him.

“So, how did you meet the boyfriend then?”

“Well, Luke is a YouTuber…” Ashton started, like he had practiced several times.

“I stumbled across one of his covers and I liked it so I watched his other covers and then his vlogs. We met for the first time in a bar in Sydney. I recognized him and asked for a selfie. We only had like a week before I had to leave again but we became quite close through texts and skype sessions. I just knew I wanted Luke to be more than just my friend so I asked him out, and it just went from there I guess.” Ashton told Ellen and the audience with a small smile on his face.

“Is he here?” Yet another unnecessary question, for Ashton had introduced the boy to her only an hour ago.

“Yeah, he is.”

“Do you take him to all your interviews and appointments?” Ellen joked.

“No. I asked him to come to this one though, for moral supported.” Ashton chuckled.

“I see. Now before you go, I’ve got one thing I want to share with you and your fans.” Ellen said and Ashton raised his eyebrows, surprised.

A new pictured popped up on the screen and Ashton turned in his seat to see it better. He saw Luke and him, Luke’s arms around his neck and his hands on Luke’s waist. Their foreheads were pressed together and their eyes were closed, their lips smiling contently.

Ashton figured someone from Ellen’s crew had taken the picture back when they were in the dressing room.

The crowd was going mad.

“Sorry, it was just too cute not to take a picture of it.” The blonde woman smiled apologetically at Ashton when she noticed the look on his face. He wasn’t mad though. He was just genuinely surprised with how _real_ that picture was, how private their smiles and how close their bodies were. If he hadn’t known any better he would’ve totally fooled himself. It did weird things to his tummy.

 

\---

 

“That was so good!” Luke cheered once Angela, Ashton and Luke were alone in the safety of Henry’s car.

“They _loved_ it.” He beamed at the singer and Ashton could only smile a back. His brains hadn’t really caught up with what had happened yet but he was happy nonetheless.

“Yeah.” He chuckled as the blonde boy threw his arms around Ashton, hugging him tight in his excitement.

“Yeah, good job Ash.” Angela agreed.

“Now, I want the two of you to get some rest. You’re single is coming out on Thursday and the following days will be absolutely crazy.”

Ashton nodded. He knew about all the events that had been planned in between the release of ‘Hey Everybody’ and the release of the rest of his album.

 

“Make sure to keep the fans updated on your relationship. I want you two to hang out and post pictures on social media. And make sure to go out in public at least once before the release of the song.” Angela told them before she got out of the car.

Luke and Ashton both nodded solemnly.

Once the door was closed, Luke moved so he was a bit closer to Ashton, his thigh pressed against the singer’s and their shoulders bumping. The elder of the two didn’t know why he had done it, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to complain. It was comfortable in a way Ashton couldn’t even begin to explain to himself, so he didn’t.

 

\---

 

It was Thursday night and Ashton was having a hard time sitting still. He had posted a video on Instagram to thank his fans for the comments on ‘Hey Everybody’ and he had tweeted that he was overwhelmed with how positive everybody was and thanked everyone yet again.

His fans had been sending him cute little messages, thanking him for writing about something they could relate to, something that made them feel better despite their situation and Ashton just wanted to dance around the house and shout it from the rooftops. Luke was with him. The huge grin hadn’t left his face either and together they were celebrating Ashton’s success. They were having a beer and Luke had bought a tiny cake for the two of them and it was amazing really. The singer would celebrate with his crew once the entire album was out, but he couldn’t wait that long.

The song was playing as loudly as possible and Luke and Ashton were both singing along at the top of their lungs.

 

Suddenly and idea popped into Luke’s head and he quickly grabbed his phone. He opened snapchat, told Ashton to ‘ _c’mere’_ , and filmed how they were singing and dancing along to the song. Their faces and bodies were so close to each other and once again it was weird for Ashton to see how natural it looked, and felt.

Luke added the short video to his story and they both were pretty certain social media would be full of comments about them together.

Then the young blonde shoved his phone in the pocket of his jeans, grabbed Ashton’s hands and started ‘dancing’ with him – a.k.a. moving his hips to the beat of the song.

The singer chuckled but danced along anyway.

It didn’t take long before Luke tugged on Ashton’s hands a little and placed them on his hips, wrapping his own arms around the older boy’s neck. He kept a safe distance within the rest of their bodies, which Ashton had mixed feelings about.

“We might as well practice dancing for real…” he mumbled before pulling the boy against his body. He knew he had made a mistake right away.

The boy’s face was only millimetres away from his face and chest and tummy were pressed against Ashton’s. He could feel the boy’s steady breathing while he had trouble catching his breath.

His eyes fluttered from Luke’s eyes to his lip ring and though he had felt the cold metal against his lips before, he still needed to know what it would feel like for everything had been a bit of a blur last time – and the time before.

So before he even knew it he stopped dancing and leaned in. He could see the blonde raising his eyebrows in confusion but he closed his eyes and leaned in anyways.

The kiss was soft. It wasn’t needy or exploring, it was just the pressure of lips against lips again. Ashton was too scared to deepen the kiss, to break any boundaries. He didn’t complain though, this felt amazing already.

 

When they broke apart, Luke still looked a bit confused. He didn’t ask Ashton why he had kissed him while literally no one was around or could possible walk in on them though. Ashton was glad of it because he wouldn’t have had a better answer then ‘ _your lips looked too good not to.’_

 

\---

 

“Let me carry that.” Ashton said, taking the rather big, black hold-all from Luke and carrying it out of the car and into the hotel. Ashton and his band were visiting New York because they were going to play his newest song at the Tonight show with Jimmy Fallon and Angela had asked Luke to tag along. He had said yes right away for he knew Tyler Oakly was there to promote his book and to work on a movie and he had been dying to meet the boy for ages now. Angela had agreed it was the perfect excuse for Luke to come along.

It had been an eight hour flight from Los Angeles to New York City and both boys were quite tired even though they had done nothing but sit still and watch cartoons the entire flight.

Luckily the staff of the hotel Henry had brought them to had been prepared for their arrival, so all the boys had to do was take the key and find the right room.

Once they had found it, they let themselves fall on top of their queen sized bed. Angela had gotten them a single bed room for she didn’t want the staff to spread any rumours, saying ‘Lashton’ wasn’t real.

Ashton stared up at the ceiling and forced himself not to wonder if maybe Luke’s shirt had ridden up to reveal his tummy the way his own had.

 

The singer was trying to get up with something to say to get Luke’s attention, but when he couldn’t think of anything he pushed himself off of the bed, grabbed his bag and walked into the rather large bathroom.

“I’m taking a shower.” He mumbled and Luke hummed while staring at his phone. Ashton thought he recognized the blue colour of the twitter app but he wasn’t sure.

 

The hotel bathroom had a rather large bathtub and though it looked quite inviting, Ashton wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible so he could go to bed; he was so tired and tomorrow was going to be a long day.

He turned on the water while he pulled off his shirt and his jeans, needing the water to warm up a bit at first.

The dirty blonde reached out his hand and carefully tested the water and once he deemed it hot enough, he stepped inside of the glass cabin. He didn’t really know why but a shower usually felt even better after a long trip than it did after working out or after a photoshoot.

The boy closed his eyes, threw his head back and let the water run down his face and neck, his hair sticking to his forehead.

He blindly searched for the bottle of shampoo and poured some on his left hand, massaging it into his head.

Only a minute or two later he turned off the water, dried his hair with the fluffy, white hotel towel and then tied it around his waist. He was aware of the few drops that were still falling from his hair and moving down his chest but he didn’t really mind; it would dry soon enough.

 

The moment he stepped out of the bathroom he realized he had forgotten about one minor detail.

Luke.

 

The young blonde was seated cross-legged on top of their shared bed, clad in thin, red checkered pyjama bottoms and an old looking, grey tank top. In his hands was a consoler and his eyes were fixed on the tv screen in front of him, his brows furrowed in concentration.

“What are you playing?” Ashton asked. He couldn’t recall Luke packing his PlayStation.

“FiFa. Apparently every room in this hotel has an Xbox.” The boy beamed without looking up.

“Oh cool.”

“Do you wanna play?” Luke asked.

“No thanks. I don’t like FiFa.”

That’s when Luke did look up.

He looked rather offended but his entire expression changed as soon as he noticed what Ashton was wearing – or rather what he wasn’t wearing. It almost looked like his jaw was about to drop but he recovered quickly. Ashton couldn’t help but feel a little proud nonetheless.

“Who doesn’t like FiFa?” the youngest asked, forcing himself to look at the screen in front of him again. His cheeks were red though.

“Me.” Ashton shrugged.

His eyes were taking in Luke. He was looking so cosy and cute and cuddly in his pyjamas. Ashton wanted nothing more but to walk up to him, sit behind him and wrap his arms around his stomach; he knew he couldn’t though.

“Uhm, I kinda wanted to go to bed soon.” Ashton said, scratching the back of his neck before moving to grab some boxers. He didn’t like to wear too many clothes during the night but maybe it would be better to put on some pants at least. The singer grabbed his plain black pyjama bottoms and wanted to go back into the bathroom to pee and get dressed.

“Yeah, me too.” Luke agreed.

“Can I just finish this game real quick?” he almost pleaded and Ashton nodded with a small smile on his face.

“Of course.” He added.

He closed the bathroom door behind him, untied the towel, pulled on his boxers and pants and brushed his teeth. When he stepped into the room once again, Luke was just scoring a goal and grinning from ear to ear.

 

Luckily for Ashton, it didn’t take long for the YouTuber to finish his game and crawl into bed next to him.

The bed was big enough for them to move around without accidentally touching each other which was both a blessing and a curse. Ashton was starting to get real tired from this entire situation. The longer it lasted, the more he knew he should’ve never gone through with it; it was too confusing.

He was falling for a boy who he was able to kiss and touch, who kissed him back and looked at Ashton as if he was the love of his life – but only when people were, or could be watching.

And now they were in bed together, only centimetres away from each other but Ashton wasn’t able to touch; he didn’t even allow himself to look. For some reason it felt like that would be invading Luke’s privacy.

 

\---

 

It didn’t take long for Luke to fall asleep, which didn’t really surprise Ashton. For some reason, flights always were quite wearisome.

But the singer was having trouble falling asleep and he blamed Luke.

 

Ashton had been sure Luke was sleeping for an hour now and so he had finally dared to look over. It had been a mistake.

The blonde boy had looked so peaceful with his fluffy bed hair and his eyes closed, his chest rising and falling peacefully.

Ashton had found it hard to not reach out and stroke his cheek carefully, or to trail his fingers through the boy’s blonde locks.

 

And now the singer was staring up at the ceiling, listening to the rain falling outside of the hotel and the traffic of New York City that never really stopped.

 

The weather was slowly getting worse and suddenly, without warning, a loud thunderclap could be heard. Ashton didn’t really mind; for some reason he had always liked thunderstorms. If he had been in this bed alone, he would’ve gotten out and looked out of the window. Ashton didn’t want to disturb Luke though.

 

Only half a minute later a flash was seen, despite the curtains covering the hotel window, and it didn’t take long for another clap to be heard.

Ashton listened to the noises that followed and he was slowly feeling himself getting tired enough to close his eyes and drift to sleep.

But then someone tugged on the blankets and whimpered softly.

Ashton, feeling alarmed, looked to his left and noticed Luke had pulled the black blankets up to cover his entire head.

“Luke?” He whispered, wondering if maybe he had done it in his sleep.

“Are you awake?”

“Yeah.” Luke responded, his voice sounding so small Ashton barely recognized it.

“What’s wrong?” the elder of the two asked.

At that exact moment the rolling of thunder could be heard once again and Luke could see the body beneath the blankets reacting to it.

“Are you afraid?” Ashton asked gently.

“No!” Luke said, but his voice gave him away. The fact that the blankets were still covering his eyes and ears didn’t help his case either.

“It’s okay if you are.” Ashton reassured him.

“Calum is too.” It was a lie, but Luke didn’t need to know that.

 

For a minute or two Luke didn’t respond but then he lowered the blankets so Ashton could see his eyes. The YouTuber squeezed them shut at another thunderclap.

“Okay, yeah, I’m scared. I don’t know why, I just hate the sound. I don’t like firework either.” The boy admitted shyly. Ashton smiled at him fondly.

“C’mere.” He said, mentioning for Luke to come closer.

The boy did as he was told and Ashton wrapped his strong arms around the boy’s body, his thumb rubbing what he hoped were soothing circles into his bicep. He pressed a kiss to the top of the boy’s head and mumbled sweet nothings.

The singer could tell Luke was trying his hardest to calm himself but his body tensed up every single time he could hear the noises he hated so much.

As the weather got a bit better, Luke was slowly relaxing against Ashton, his head resting on the older boy’s shoulder and his eyes falling shut once again.

Ashton wasn’t sure if it was because of Luke or because he had been tired for hours now, but he finally managed to fall asleep himself.

 

The next morning, it took him a while to figure out how he had ended up with Luke pressed against him with his head on his chest. Once he remembered what had happened that night, a small smile appeared on his face. He pressed another kiss to the top of the YouTuber’s head and then closed his eyes again; they didn’t have to get up for another hour or so.

 

\---

 

“Hey, how was your day?” Ashton asked when Luke got back to the hotel room.

The singer had been back for the Jimmy Fallon show for a little over an hour and a half now and though he had planned on going to bed right away, he had decided to wait up for Luke. The blonde had left for Tyler Oakly’s book signing before Ashton had left for the show and the eldest had expected Luke to be back before him.

“It was _amazing!”_ Luke exclaimed, a huge smile on his face.

“He recognized me at the signing and he asked me if I wanted to do a video with him. We didn’t have much time but I think it’s going to be pretty cool.”

“That’s awesome, Luke.” Ashton smiled genuinely. He loved to see the boy talk about something he loved doing.

“What was he like?”

“He was so funny! He’s the same as he is in his videos; it was so cool to witness.” Luke told him enthusiastically before telling him the story of everything he and Tyler had talked about and all that they had done in such a short amount of time. Ashton could feel himself growing jealous, which was absolutely ridiculous. Luke wasn’t his; never had been, never would be. It was all an act.

“Oh, and he asked me about you so I told him the story of how we met. He said he was so jealous and that he was still waiting for his soulmate to dm him.” Luke giggled at the end.

“Oh, good. The fans will like that.” Ashton nodded, refusing to give himself any false hope.

Ashton told himself he was just imagining it when he thought he saw Luke’s face fall a bit.

 

“And how was your day?” Luke asked to change the subject.

“It was good! The song went quite well for a first time.” Ashton told Luke. Many people had told him he was too modest but the singer thought he was just exacting when it came to his music.

“I can’t wait to see it.” Luke smiled at him.

The boy looked like he wanted to ask something but he didn’t. Ashton still answered his question.

“I talked about us too. Jimmy asked about you, how you were.”

“Oh.” Luke said, looking away from Ashton.

“He said he shipped us too. He likes the way we looked at each other apparently.” The singer giggled, a bit of an uneasy feeling inside of him he couldn’t explain to himself.

“That’s awesome.” Luke smiled.

“I’m gonna take a shower.”

Ashton nodded. He had already showered so he crawled into their shared bed.

 

The singer was fortunate enough to fall asleep before he could see Luke walking out of the bathroom with wet hair and in only his pyjama bottoms.

He did wake up when he felt the bed dip though, but that wasn’t as bad, for Luke was already beneath the blankets by the time Ashton opened his eyes. Though he really wanted to find out what Luke had to offer beneath his clothes, he knew it would make his developing crush on the boy only worse, and he really couldn’t use that right now.

“Hey Ash?” Luke asked when he noticed the singer was awake.

“Hmm?” he hummed.

“Do you mind if…” he paused.

“What?” Ashton asked gently, to encourage the boy to just say it.

The boy took a breath.

“Do you mind if I edit and upload the video now? I mean, because of the light and all?”

“Oh.” Ashton said, feeling a little disappointed. He had hoped Luke would ask him to cuddle like last night or whatever. He should’ve known that wouldn’t happen.

“Yeah, no – go ahead.”

 

\---

 

“Ashton, wake up!” Luke said, shaking Ashton’s shoulders not so gently.

“What?” he groaned without opening his eyes.

“We need to leave in half an hour.” The YouTuber explained.

“Also my video with Tyler Oakly has been watched thousands of times since last night.” The younger boy added enthusiastically.

“That’s great.” Ashton mumbled while turning so he was lying on his side.

“Yeah!” Luke beamed even though he knew very well that Ashton probably didn’t even know what he had just said.

“But you really need to get up now or Angela will kill us both.”

“I don’t care.”

Luke gasped loudly and Ashton could only imagine what kind of face he was pulling in an attempt to look offended.

 

Thirty minutes later and the famous singer was walking towards Henry’s car with a sandwich in between his teeth, his and Luke’s bags in his hands while Henry was carrying the rest.

“You know, you could’ve eaten your breakfast in peace if you had just gotten up earlier.” Luke pointed out with a cocky grin on his face Ashton either wanted to kiss or slap off of his face. Instead he only grumbled which only caused Luke to giggle.

 

Once they were inside of the car, Luke grabbed his phone and went to YouTube.

He started chuckling and Ashton curiously rested his chin on the boy’s shoulder so he could see what was so funny.

‘ _If I didn’t love Lashton so much I’d totally ship Lyler’_ one of the comments on Luke and Tyler’s video said.

Luke scrolled down to read more comments.

‘ _Omg, I love you two so much! I’m so glad you finally did a collab!’_ another fan said.

 _‘This is the funniest thing ever’_ Someone had commented.

‘ _I didn’t know who Luke was before I started watching this but HOLY SHIT HE’S CUTE. I won’t rest till I’ve seen all of his videos.’_

_‘Lashton is the best ship ever!’_

Ashton chuckled. He agreed with them though.

_‘Luke is sooooo obviously in love with Ashton. Look at those heart eyes!’_

_‘O God Luke is in so deep its sickeningly cute’_

When the singer looked at Luke, he noticed he was wearing a pretty impressive blush and he was quickly scrolling so they couldn’t read these comments anymore. Ashton could almost feel the heat coming from his cheeks with how close their faces were.

The Lashton comments didn’t stop though.

_‘Awww Luke is so in love’_

_‘I am so damn jealous of Luke!’_

_‘Seriously, Ashton is fucking lucky to have someone who can’t even keep a straight face while talking about him!!!’_

_‘Lashton needs to do a video together! #boyfriendtag!!’_ One girl had said.

“That’s actually a pretty good idea.” Luke said while locking his phone and putting it away. He still refused to look Ashton in the eyes, even after he had moved so he was out of the YouTuber’s personal space.

“We could go to my place once we’re back in LA, film a video together.” The younger of the two suggested.

“Yeah, okay.” Ashton easily agreed. He knew he’d agree to everything Luke would ever decide for them.

 

Inside of the airplane, Luke decided to try and get some sleep while Ashton watched the video Luke had uploaded the night before. He wanted to see Luke’s ‘heart eyes’ for himself.

“ _Well hello everyone_!” Tyler greeted his viewers as always.

Ashton had made sure to watch as many YouTubers as possible in the last few weeks to make his and Luke’s love story a bit more credible, to make it seem as if he had genuinely invested in Luke’s life. And he had liked them so much, he was now subscribed to Tyler Oakly, Troy Sivan, Joe Sugg and Conor Maynard’s channels.

“ _My name is Tyler Oakly and I am here with the one and only…”_ Tyler moved so he could look at Luke.

“ _Luke Hemmings!”_ Luke cheered with his hands in the air. He was excited like a little kid in a candy store.

“ _I am so fucking excited to finally do a video with you.”_ Tyler said while still looking at the blonde. Luke’s jaw dropped.

“You _were excited to do a video with_ me? _”_  he questioned.

“ _Of course, I love your videos.”_

_“Anyway, because we don’t have much time to record this we need to get to business…”_

Tyler started and soon enough Ashton was watching him and Luke doing some kind of challenge with a shock ball. It was all pretty hilarious so the singer was having trouble of staying quiet so he didn’t wake his boyfriend.

_“Okay, before you leave; I wanna talk about one more thing…”_ Tyler said, wiggling his eyebrows.

 _“Let me guess.”_ Luke chuckled.

“ _Ashton?”_

_“Yes!”_

_“To be honest, I really didn’t see it coming. You guys kept it a secret pretty well for quite a while!”_

Luke grinned and Ashton couldn’t stop his lips from smiling either. If only Tyler had known the truth.

“ _Yeah, well, it took quite a while before we met for real and for some reason we both thought it would be awkward to share our relationship with the world while we were still getting used to be around each other, you know?”_ Luke explained as if they had really felt like that.

“ _And now he’s your bae.”_ Tyler giggled and Luke nodded seriously.

“ _Yeah. I know it’s cliché but he’s my better half, I think. He will always be before anyone else."_

 _“Awwwww”_ Tyler interrupted him.

“ _It’s just the little things, you know? Like, yeah, Ashton is a big rock star and he’s really hot; I know the whole world wants him. But what I like most about him are the simple things. I am most content when it’s just the two of us, making music or watching movies or just lying in bed, talking about everything and nothing in particular while we should actually go to sleep.”_

Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but Ashton swore he could see the heart eyes the viewers had been talking about. He knew he should push those thoughts away for it could only come back to bite him later but it was so easy to pretend Luke really loved him like he said he did.

Maybe Luke was an incredible actor but Ashton liked to imagine he wasn’t lying about his feelings for the singer.

He couldn’t even finish watching the video for it confused him too much, so he put his phone away, shifted so he could lie his head on Luke’s shoulder and closed his eyes, wanting nothing more but to go to sleep and forget about the last hour or so.

 

_\---_

It had been almost eight weeks since Luke and Ashton had started ‘dating’ and Ashton’s feelings for the blonde were growing every single day.

Luke was staying over at Ashton’s place more frequently and even when Luke’s hair was pointing in all kinds of directions and the boy’s mood wasn’t all that great in the morning, the singer still thought he was the most adorable human to walk the earth.

 

The two were used to kissing now, with or without people watching. That didn’t mean it didn’t make Ashton’s palms sweaty and the butterflies in his stomach flutter anymore. It was the exact opposite actually; it was only getting worse.

 

And it didn’t help that Luke didn’t really shut up about Ashton in his videos and that his fans kept talking about how incredibly obviously in love he was. It was getting harder for the singer to tell himself he was just looking into things when he wasn’t the only one who could see it.

 

“Are you ready?” Luke asked once he had turned on his camera.

“Yeah.” Ashton nodded confidently. It had been hard to hide his own heart eyes – if he even had any that is, he wasn’t sure – but they were recording the boyfriend tag for Luke’s YouTube channel now so he could blame it on that.

“Okay. So, just pretend like the camera isn’t there. I mean, you can and should look into it but don’t think about it too much; I can delete every single thing you want me to.” The younger of the two promised him.

Ashton nodded once again.

“Okay, let me introduce you first.” Luke giggled; of course everybody knew who he was already.

 

“Hiya guys.” The blonde chose to use his usual greeting.

“So, you have been asking me to do the boyfriend tag for over three weeks now but Ashton’s a busy guy, with his album coming out soon and all. Today however, you finally got what you asked for!” Luke told his viewers enthusiastically.

“Say hi.” He told Ashton.

The boy forced a huge grin onto his face, waved into the camera and said ‘hi’.

“Can you explain what the boyfriend tag is?” Luke encouraged him.

“Yeah, ‘course.” Ashton chuckled; they had already arranged the entire video.

“So, the boyfriend tag is pretty much us answering questions from the internet about the other and about our relationship so you can get to know us a little bit better.” Ashton explained. He didn’t worry about it not being a good enough explanation since every teenager with a smartphone or a laptop – or both – already knew about the tag.

“Okay, so, first question…” Luke said, taking his phone and unlocking it to reveal the list of questions.

“Where did we meet?”

“Oh, I think most of you guys already know this but I’m more than happy to tell it again.” Ashton started.

“I stumbled across a video of Luke on the internet and I just watched his videos whenever he uploaded them for a while. And then back when I was in Sydney I actually ran into him in a bar and I asked him for a picture and that’s pretty much it…”

Luke nodded.

“Okay, next question.” He said, handing his phone to Ashton. He read the second question.

“Where was our first date?”

“Well I like to think that first night in the bar was our first date? Like, you didn’t even know you were into guys yet but I was trying really hard to impress you to be honest.” Luke laughed as if it had really happened.

“But our first official date was at your place I guess.”

“Ashton cooked for me.” Luke said as he looked straight into the camera.

“It was horrible.” He added and Ashton punched him playfully.

“You are such a little shit.” He chuckled. He did mean it, but in a good way; Luke probably knew that though. 

“What was your first impression of me?” the youngest asked, moving onto the next question.

“Uhm…” Ashton thought about the moment Luke had stepped into the audition room. He knew he couldn’t use that though, since the fans believed he had seen Luke on the internet at first, where he could’ve only seen his face.

“I thought you were a really good singer; obviously. And I thought you were cute…” he said, blushing a tiny bit. It wasn’t even an act.

“Yeah, that’s probably my first impression of you as well. I can’t even remember, I’ve been a fan for ages to be honest… I know I found you really hot though.” Luke giggled and Ashton looked down at his feet. The YouTuber quickly pressed a kiss to his cheek.

 

 Twenty questions later and Luke asked him which colour his eyes were.

“Seriously, what kind of boyfriend doesn’t know what colour their person’s eyes are?” He wondered out loud.

“They’re the bluest blue eyes could possibly be.” He answered.

“Like, I’m still convinced you were fake contacts all day, every day.”

The singer stared into Luke’s eyes for a while and time seemed to be standing still. Luke stared back just as intense so Ashton did the only thing he could think of; he leaned in and pressed a kiss to the boy’s pink lips.

The YouTuber chuckled a bit uneasy and looked away once they were parted and it confused the singer a bit. He didn’t ask what was wrong though, even though the youngest could easily cut it out of the video.

“Your eyes are like hazelish, greenish.” Luke quickly recovered himself.

“They’re really pretty.” He added.

Ashton smiled fondly at him.

“Thanks baby.”

He didn’t know where the nickname had come from; they had never really used any before.

It felt good though – really good.

 

“Who is my best friend?” He asked before Luke could respond to the nickname.

“Calum. Who’s mine?”

“Michael.”

“Fun fact…” Luke said, turning to look into the camera.

“Our best friends are actually dating each other.”

Calum wasn’t a big celebrity but Ashton’s fans as well as some other fan bases still knew about him. He had never made his relationship with Michael a secret.

‘They are.” Ashton nodded.

“And they’re the cutest couple ever.”

“Except for us of course.” Luke grinned and Ashton rolled his eyes at his boyfriend.

 

\---

 

“Ashton?” Luke carefully opened the door to the singer’s bedroom later that night.

“Hmm?” he hummed sleepily.

“Can I sleep in your bed? I don’t like sleeping alone.” The blonde boy’s voice sounded small and shy.

“’Course.” The elder of the two said, pushing his blankets back so Luke could crawl in next to him. They had slept in a bed together many times now; it was no longer awkward.

The blonde quickly crawled beneath the blankets but instead of lying down a few centimetres away from Ashton, he moved so he could rest his head on the singer’s shoulder. As if on cue, the eldest wrapped his arms around Luke, holding him like he had done that first time they had shared a bed when Luke had been afraid of the storm. Just like that night he pressed a kiss on the boy’s blonde locks. He didn’t do it in an attempt to comfort the boy this time though.

 

“Ash.”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

 

Ashton’s phone went off at half past eight the next morning. The celebrity knew it was a radio station he had forgotten the name of who was calling. Luckily, he had been awake for almost half an hour so his voice didn’t sound too sleepy.

“ _Good morning Ashton.”_ A way too happy voice greeted him.

“Good morning to you too.” He replied as cheerfully as possible. Luke, who was still in his bed, groaned at the noise.

 _“This time next week the whole world will be able to listen to your newest album; how do you feel about that?”_ the dj asked him.

“Uhm, I’m a bit nervous to be honest. Excited, but nervous. I’m really happy with the songs and I just hope the fans will be as well, you know?”

The blonde who was not so much asleep next to Ashton pulled the blankets to cover his ears, annoyed with how loudly the singer was talking.

_“Right. Your single is already out and the music video will be released in a couple of days, are you nervous about that as well?”_

“Yeah, a bit. It’s just that the fans know the song and have certain ideas and expectations based on the lyrics and I’m always a bit scared to let them down. But I really like this video and I am pretty positive the fans will like it as well.”

Luke groaned once again and buried his head beneath his pillow which made Ashton giggle a little.

“ _Okay, good. Well, we are very excited and I am sure your fans will love it no matter what.”_

_“Now, Ashton, we’re getting the impression you are not entirely alone back there, are we right?”_

“Yeah, Luke’s trying to sleep so he’s a bit grumpy because I won’t shut up I’m afraid.” The singer chuckled.

“ _Oh okay. Can he say hi to our listeners please?”_

“Uh, I’m pretty sure he’s asleep again.”

“No I’m not.” Luke half-whispered.

“Oh, here he is.”

Ashton held his phone next to the boy’s face.

“’Ello.” He mumbled, his voice quiet and hoarse.

“ _Hello Luke. Have you heard your boyfriend’s album yet?”_

“Yeah.” The blonde answered truthfully. He didn’t have it in him to say anything else.

“ _I bet you’re really proud of him.”_

“I am.” Luke agreed.

“I’m also really tired, so if you don’t mind…” he added sleepily, yawning as soon as the words had left his mouth and Ashton chuckled.

“It’s me again.” He announced once he was holding his phone against his own ear again.

“ _Okay, thank you very much Ashton. Is there any song you want to hear from us now?”_ the radio dj asked, assuming the singer was actually listening to his station at this time of day.

“Yeah, I’d like to hear ‘Trip Switch’ by ‘Nothing but Thieves’” Ashton said. It was the first song he could think of.

_“Okay, thank you for your time and here is your song.”_

The singer could hear the beginning of the song.

“ _Bye Ashton, and good luck with the release of your album!”_

“Thank you. Bye.”

_“Bye.”_

“Did they really have to call at fucking six in the morning?” Luke complained about five minutes later. Ashton figured he had planned on saying it earlier but that he had been too lazy to do so.

“It’s half past eight actually.” the eldest pointed out.

“Same thing.” Luke grumbled.

“Can we please go back to sleep now?” and Ashton’s heart fluttered a bit because Luke had said ‘we’ which probably meant he wanted him to lay down so they could snuggle up again, right?

“Yeah, of course.” He mused as he lowered himself. Luke draped his arms over his chest right away and nuzzled his face in the crook of the singer’s neck.

It took mere minutes for him to be sound asleep once again.

 

\---

 

The next day Ashton left to do a show not too far away, yet he did have to stay in a hotel for one night and this time Luke wasn’t tagging along. Michael was doing a show in a bar he had been talking about for weeks now and the blonde really wanted to be there for him. And of course Ashton had told him it was okay, even though he was a bit disappointed to say the least. He would’ve liked another trip with his fake boyfriend.

 

“Have fun.” Luke said as he kissed Ashton on the cheek.

‘Yeah you too. Tell Michael I’m sorry I couldn’t be there.”

While Luke and Calum both had spent quite some time with the red haired boy the last couple of weeks, Ashton still hadn’t. He had been too busy and though the other three said they understood, he still felt like he was supposed to get to know his boyfriend’s best friend and his best friend’s boyfriend.

“He knows that. There’s always next time.” Luke reassured him.

“Okay. You’ll call if you need anything right?” Ashton checked for the fifth time that morning.

“Yeah, yeah.” Luke chuckled while gently pushing Ashton towards the car.

“Don’t worry about me.”

“Bye.” Ashton said one last time. Suddenly he heard the flash of a camera so he gently took Luke’s head in his hands and kissed the younger boy’s forehead, letting his lips linger a little longer than necessary.

“I’ll miss you.” Was the last thing Ashton heard before the car door slammed shut.

He sighed. He knew he would miss the blonde as well, there was no doubt about it.

 

It was only an hour later when he got a text from Luke, saying the internet was already going mad over the picture of their forehead kiss.

So he checked twitter, only to find ‘Lashton’ was trending worldwide once again. He hit the picture so he could see it a bit better and brought his phone closer to his face. He investigated the way his lips were pressed against the boy’s skin, how his hands were almost as big as his entire face and the way Luke had closed his eyes. Ashton was pretty sure that if it hadn’t been for his hand covering the boy’s cheek, the camera would’ve caught up on the blush on his face.

Ashton felt the need to text Luke back, just to feel close to him even though they weren’t. But he didn’t know what to say, which excuse to use to talk to Luke.

So instead he decided to tweet something, let the whole world enjoy. The YouTuber would think it was only for publicity while in fact it was just because Ashton needed to do something with the feelings that were taking over his brain.

 

‘A _lready missing you so much @LukeHemmings Cant wait to be back home with you in two days <3’_

It was the truth, but Luke didn’t need to know that. It would only make things complicated. Luke would probably find it weird, be uncomfortable around Ashton and if the fans would see it, they’d be dead.

 

The young blonde reacted only fifteen minutes later.

 

‘ _@AshtonIrwin aww me too babe <3<3 I’ll be back in your arms before you know it. Have fun out there!’_

 

The singer smiled at his phone. If only this could’ve been real.

 

\---

 

Ten hours later and Ashton was fighting the urge to call Luke.

He was in his dressing room, waiting to get on stage and play his single. Luke was probably at the bar, listening to Michael do his thing, so he wouldn’t pick up anyways.

That was the only reason the singer hadn’t called yet.

 

He didn’t know why he wanted to check up on his fake boyfriend so much, for nothing could possible go wrong.

Luke was a responsible adult who could easily take care of himself – except for the cooking part, but Ashton knew Calum had taken care of that tonight.

The tiny voice in the back of his mind that said that it was because he just wanted to hear the other boy’s voice was pushed away over and over again; it was ridiculous and therefor Ashton didn’t want to listen to it.

 

Maybe it was just some sort of home sickness; the couple had spent so much time together those last two months, he had probably gotten used to it too much.

 

“Five minutes Ash.” One of his crew members told him and Ashton nodded.

He got up to go to the restroom one last time because no matter how many times he had done this, he would still get nervous.

 

“And here he is with his new song ‘Hey Everybody’; Ashton Irwin” the presenter pretty much yelled into the microphone.

Everybody in the audience started screaming from the top of their lungs and Ashton all but ran onto the stage where his band was already waiting for him.

“Hi Ashton, how are you feeling?” The elder man asked.

“I’m great, thanks.”

“Good to hear. Your album is coming out in two days, am I right?”

“Yes, you are.” Ashton grinned.

“Are you excited?”

“Very! I can’t wait for the fans to hear what I’ve been working on this year.”

“Okay, well, we are very excited as well. Tonight you’re going to play your latest single for us I believe?”

Ashton nodded.

“Okay, well, take it away.”

“Thank you.”

 

And with that the band started playing and Ashton didn’t think about anything but the words he had to sing. It was great. That was the reason Ashton loved performing so much; it made him forget about everything and everyone, it was like an escape from reality. He just sang and danced a little and mentioned for the audience to clap along to the music and it was amazing. He always got a rush out of it and he knew he’d never get boring of doing what he did.

 

When the song came to an end, the audience rose from their seats and made so much noise Ashton was glad he was wearing his monitors. He grinned from ear to ear and made a little bow.

The presenter came up to him to announce the singer’s album release once again and then the singer was free to go.

 

The night had been a short one and though it was fun to do perform a single at a tv show, Ashton was glad he could go on tour soon for he liked doing entire gigs so much more.

 

When he came back to his hotel he finally allowed himself to dial Luke’s number.

He listened to the beeps while waiting for the young boy to pick up while he thought of an excuse for why he was calling.

“ _Hello_?”

“Hi!” Ashton greeted him cheerfully; he was glad Luke wasn’t asleep yet.

“ _What’s up? Is something wrong?”_ The young boy sounded worried and Ashton chuckled a little.

“Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to check up on you I guess… How was the gig?” He quickly asked, hoping Luke somehow hadn’t heard the middle part of his rambling.

 _“It was amazing!”_ Luke beamed.

_“There were so many people and Michael was so good! Everybody loved it. He even did an original song; Calum helped him write it.”_

“That’s awesome! I wish I could’ve been there.” Ashton smiled at nothing and no one in particular.

“Did you record it?”

 _“Yeah.”_ Luke said.

“I demand to see it when I get back.”

 _“Of course.”_ Luke said, and Ashton could hear the smile in his voice.

_“How was your gig?”_

“It was good.” He said, shrugging.

 _“Can’t wait to go on tour, can you?”_ Luke chuckled; he knew Ashton too well already.

“Yeah.” The singer grinned, letting himself fall on top of his double bed.

 _“At what time do you expect to be back?”_ Luke asked.

“’Round five p.m.”

Luke hummed. Ashton could hear him taking a breath, ready to start another sentence, when he was interrupted by Calum.

“ _You two are the worse_!” He said. The words slurred and Ashton figured the boys were having a beer to celebrate Michael’s gig; Calum had always been a lightweight.

“Why’s that?” The elder of the two asked, rolling his eyes even though his best friend couldn’t see it.

 _“Can’t even go half a day without each other.”_ He said.

 _“Shut up Cal!”_ Ashton heard Luke say in the background.

“ _Give me my phone back?”_

“ _Why? Afraid I’ll tell him how in love with him you are?”_ Calum giggled.

“ _You dick. Give me that.”_

Ashton heard some noises from the other side of the line and then he heard Luke’s voice again. It was a little hard to progress what he was saying though, because all Ashton could hear was ‘ _how in love with him you are?’_

_“Ash?”_

“Oh, yeah, what?” He muttered.

“ _I’m gonna go now, bring these two idiots home. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, yeah?”_

“Yeah, of course. Good luck with them.”

“ _Thanks. Good night Ash.”_

 _“_ You too.”

 

\---

 

It had been a joke.

It must have been a joke.

Calum had been drunk and he had made fun of this whole situation Ashton and Luke were in; Ashton was sure of it.

Luke wasn’t in love with him and he never would be; he was an (amateur) actor pretending to be his boyfriend and nothing more. He knew what he was doing and he wouldn’t let his feelings – if he even had any to begin with – take over.

 

That didn’t stop Ashton from being overly excited to get home though.

They’d arrive at his place in less than fifteen minutes and Luke would be waiting there for him.

He knew it was stupid, but the singer couldn’t help but imagine what their little reunion would be like. He felt like a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl on her way to her first date, imagining what her first kiss would be like.

Maybe there would be paparazzi outside of Ashton’s house and maybe Luke would be waiting for him and open the door and walk up to him to hug and kiss him like an old-fashioned housewife would.

Once again, Ashton knew it was stupid. He just couldn’t turn these thoughts off.

Luke’s hugs and kisses were addictive and Ashton had gone almost twenty-four hours without them.

 

Henry rounded a corner and soon enough Ashton could see his house.

There weren’t any paparazzi around but maybe he could steal a small kiss from his fake boyfriend nonetheless.

The car came to a halt and Ashton quickly got out, grabbed his bags so Henry could go home right away like the singer had promised him, and walked up to his front door.

It took him a while to find his keys in the pockets of his jacket and jeans for he never remembered where he had put them.

Once inside of the house, he dropped down his bags and called the YouTuber’s name.

“Luke?”

Silence.

“Luke?” He tried a little louder, but there came no reply.

“Luke, are you here?” he said, taking a few steps towards the stairs in case the boy was upstairs, but once again, he was met with silence.

Confused, because Luke had said he’d be here when Ashton would come back, Ashton walked up the stairs. He called his boyfriend’s name another four, five times but no matter where he looked, he couldn’t find him.

The house was empty, silent.

 

The celebrity walked bag to his bags and took his phone. Instead of texting Luke he decided to call him for it was quicker.

He waited for the blonde to pick up and explain why he wasn’t where he was supposed to be, but none of that happened.

He tried again, and again but no matter how long he waited, Luke wouldn’t greet him through the phone.

Ashton, growing rather worried, grabbed his car keys and all but ran towards his black BMW.

He knew he was speeding a bit but he didn’t really care. He didn’t know why, but all worst-case-scenarios he could think off were bothering him and making it hard to think straight.

It didn’t take long to arrive at Luke’s apartment complex but no matter how many times he hit the doorbell, absolutely nothing happened.

 

After ringing the bell for ten minutes and trying to call Luke for another five, Ashton came up with the idea to call the person who had seen him last. Calum.

 

 _“Hey mate.”_  The raven haired boy greeted him enthusiastically.

“Hi. Do you know where Luke is?” Ashton said, cutting to the chase right away.

Calum was silent for a while.

“ _No? I thought he was at yours?”_ Calum sounded genuinely confused.

“Well, he isn’t. Do you have any idea where he could be?”

“ _Have you checked his place yet?”_

“’Course. He isn’t there. He won’t answer his phone either.”

“ _Have you tried Michael’s place?”_

“No, do you have the address for me?”

 

It turned out Michael lived a bit further away; almost forty-five minutes.

That didn’t stop Ashton from trying to be there in thirty though. He had tried calling Michael first, but he hadn’t answered his phone either.

Thanks the his car’s navigation system it was quite easy to find the red haired boy’s place and once in front of the door, Ashton rang the doorbell three times in a row.

“Hi.” Michael said, smiling at the dirty blonde as if him being there was the most normal thing in the world.

“Do you know where Luke is?” 

“Yeah, he’s here.” Michael said. Ashton raised his eyebrows at the boy who didn’t invite him in or stepped aside.

“Come in.” he sighted.

“Thanks.” Ashton mumbled. He had _no_ idea what the hell was going on.

 

The celebrity followed his fake boyfriend’s best friend to what he figured was the living room. Once fully inside, he spotted Luke seated on the couch, his legs folded beneath his body and a cup of hot tea in his hands.

“Hey.” Ashton said to gain his attention.

The boy looked up. He didn’t smile. He didn’t get up to hug and kiss Ashton either.

“Hi.” He said.

“What’s up?” Ashton questioned.

Luke only shrugged.

Ashton sat down next to him and looked at the boy, but he refused to look away from his cup of tea. 

 

“I’m gonna go… Walk the dog.” Michael muttered, grabbing his coat and walking out of the room.

“You don’t have a dog!” Luke called after him, but his friend didn’t seem to hear him. Or maybe he did and he just didn’t care. Ashton was thankful he had left them alone though.

 

“Luke.” Ashton spoke gently.

“What’s up?” He tried again.

Luke didn’t reply.

“You know you can tell me anything right?”

The younger boy nodded now, but it seemed to be hesitant.

“So tell me.” Ashton tried to encourage him.

“It’s nothing Ash…” Luke mumbled.

“It obviously isn’t.”

The singer had to fight the urge to move towards the boy, grab his hand, kiss his cheek and call him baby. This wasn’t the time though.

“You were supposed to be at my place and you didn’t answer your phone. I was worried about you…” Ashton said, because he had to say something.

“I’m sorry.” Luke said. The elder of the two wasn’t sure if he meant it.

“Can you please tell me what is up? Did I do something wrong?” Ashton all but begged, for he assumed it was his fault. What else could it be?

“You did nothing Ash… Can we please go home now?”

“No.”

Finally, Luke looked at him. His brows were furrowed and he looked offended; it was a look Ashton had never seen on him before.

“Not until you tell me why you’re acting like this.”

“I’m just in a shit mood, I’m sorry. It’s not about you though.” Luke said, raising his voice as he was starting to lose his patience.

“Then why can’t you just tell me what it is?” Ashton said, his voice growing louder as well.

Luke didn’t reply and Ashton took a breath to calm himself a bit; getting mad wouldn’t solve a thing.

 

The singer tried to think of possible things that could be bothering the boy. Maybe he was tired of his job, maybe he was having second thoughts and didn’t want to go through with it anymore.

“If you aren’t comfortable with this arrangement anymore, just let me know. I can talk to Angela and we can end your contract.” Ashton offered. It was meant kindly but Luke didn’t take it like that.

“Yeah, whatever.” He placed down his cup and stood up quickly, wanting to get out of the room as quickly as possible.

“Luke, stop being so fucking difficult. Just tell me what you want!” Ashton stood as well.

“It’s not about what I want. Apparently it makes you uncomfortable that Calum said I am in love with you and now you want to get rid of me. I get it!” Luke shot back.

“What?”

“Don’t play dumb Ash. I knew this was going to fuck everything up the moment he said it. Damnit, I’m sorry, okay? Just go!”  

The singer forbade himself to ask ‘what’ again.

“I’ll call Angela and tell her I quit if that is what you want.” Luke added. His voice was hard but Ashton swore he could hear sadness hidden in it as well.

 

The singer took a step towards the boy and before Luke could take a step back, he grabbed his wrist, pulled him in and pressed his lips against Luke’s.

The blonde kissed him back right away.

 

“I don’t want you to quit. I thought you wanted to.”

Ashton kissed him again, but it didn’t last long for he had so much more to say.

“I want you. You’re all I want. For real, I mean.”

The singer wanted to lean in again, craved the feeling of Luke’s breath against his skin and his lips against his own. The younger of the two placed his hands on his chest to keep him out of kissing distance though.

“Are you serious?” he asked, his voice so small and fragile.

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“Because I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable. I was afraid you couldn’t kiss me whenever you needed to anymore and that the magazines would write about us possibly breaking up.” Ashton sighed.

Luke didn’t reply.

All he did was grab Ashton’s shirt and pull him closer by it, pressing their lips together once again. And he didn’t let go.

 

The singer felt as if they had been kissing for hours when he could feel Luke’s tongue moving across his bottom lip. He gasped a little; for as far as that was possible, that is.

His arms, which had been wrapped around the boy’s waist all this time, pulled Luke’s body even closer against his own as he let his tongue meet his fake boyfriend’s.

 

“So you won’t quit?” Ashton asked once they were out of breath.

“Uhm, I think I will actually.” Luke said without meeting the singer’s eyes.

“What? Why?” Ashton asked, his eyes desperately searching Luke’s when he did look up.

“Because I don’t want to be your fake boyfriend anymore.”

“I want to be your real boyfriend. And not just for two more months.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Oh and please find me on tumblr :)  
> I am @abbypd


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